Work

Energy poverty interventions for health in Europe: a qualitative account of tensions in problematisation, design and desired outcomes

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: With high energy prices, climate change effects and inflation affecting much of Europe, interventions for energy poverty and health are critical to allow people to meet their basic energy needs. In this paper, we report on qualitative data from an intervention study in six European cities (2022–2024), where a range of measures were implemented to reduce participants' exposure to energy poverty, and to improve health and wellbeing. We unpick how designers and participants understood the problem of energy poverty and the need for intervention, showing how these understandings shaped intervention design and effects. We present evidence of tensions between participant and designer perspectives. Designers started with a broad view of the experience of energy poverty which narrowed to a knowledge deficit framing, accompanying interventions built around education and advice. In contrast, most participants felt confident about their own energy literacy, but raised building quality as their key concern. This mismatch between the intervention and its subject resulted in participant disappointment and disillusionment with intervention outcomes, and risked further deepening existing antagonism towards design teams and their capability. We finish by recommending a more participatory approach towards intervention design, but also that policy and funders should act on the more systemic challenges associated with the retail energy market, austerity and geo-political conflict in addressing this pernicious problem.

Source: Energy Research & Social Science

DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2026.105064