This is a CTP of initiative: INFORSE - Ecoserveis (Spain)
At the beginning of the 2000s Ecoserveis pioneered the work on energy poverty in Cataluña.
This type of problem had been tackled in other countries like England. But not in Cataluña. There the problem was not recognized. Through previous projects Ecoserveis had developed working relationships with similar organizations in other countries, like DEME in France and NEA in England. The project begins when the French organizations take intereste in learning from the experiences in England where the problem had been tackled earlier and it was more visible.
By the time Ecoserveis had grown to have 5 members working full time in projects. The team had finished other projects like one in citizen investment in renewable energies. In their initial exploration of the field of energy poverty, they learned that the usual solution was charity offered to households who could not pay energy bills and were therefore suffered an electricity and/or heating cut. Ecoserveis diagnosis was that the charity approach was paternalistic and did not solve the problem.
Ecoserveis conducts activities to map the extent of the problem and suggest ways of tackling it. By the time all utilities had been privatized in Spain and there was little to no influence on their priorities and actions from ordinary citizens and from public administrators and politicians. Ecoserveis presented their initial findings and knowledge to the Catalonian Energy Agency, which just ignored the warnings. By the end of the 2000s the issue started to get media attention.
Having worked in many fields of energy Ecoserveis members saw that the problem was beginning to manifest itself. It had no media coverage. But it was seen with the rise of energy prices. It seemed interesting to learn from the English experience. There they already had experience with the subject. The problem was that people cannot pay the bills because the housing conditions are thermally inadequate. Thermal losses raise the issue of consumption. People were living under unworthy conditions.
We learned that in Spain poverty was attended with charity by city council or caritas. This does not solve the problem. It is palliative. What we learned is that energy rehabilitation work, which means helping people understand receipts, are simple things but they can be a great help. As of the crisis the municipalities begin to worry and contact them. We began forming the workers of the social services that have contact with the families affected. Training them to identify cases of strictly energetic poverty. Before it was camouflaged in general poverty. The work was mainly training. The interesting thing was that they were grateful for the training. It helped them to interpret problems that they did not imagined before. Assess the magnitude of the problem, pressure energy companies to confront it. Companies do not want to know. At this moment, poverty tables have been created in various municipalities in Catalonia. It has been legislated in Catalonia.
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