One and a half million Catalans suffer from energy poverty

BarcelonaMore than 47 million Europeans suffer from a lack of adequate heating at home during the winter, and 10 million of them are in Spain. The coldest countries are not the most affected by the situation: the worst affected are Portugal (with 20.8% of the population affected), Spain and Bulgaria (20.7%) and Greece (20%). The analysis carried out by ARA and the CORRECTIV.Europe network of journalists confirms this trend according to the most recent data available, from 2023.

The European situation is also reflected in Spain, where the colder northern regions are facing less of a lack of heating than the southern regions. The figures vary significantly between regions: while 11.5% of households are cold in the northern Basque region, that percentage reaches 26.3% in Murcia.

Catalonia, which is in ninth position in the Spanish communities, has 20.1% of the population who cannot afford adequate heating, i.e. more than 1.5 million citizens according to the data for 2023. The problem has increased by 4.2 points compared to 2021, when it was recorded. The lack of heating is growing in almost all of Spain, except in Melilla.

At the same time, the number of households that accumulate delays in the payment of bills for basic utilities (heating, electricity, gas, water or waste collection) was 13.6%. The Canary Islands are the most affected region. In Catalonia, 14% of citizens have delayed paying their bills, according to Eurostat data.

Health risks

"When exposed to cold, the body tries to defend itself against low temperatures, which puts stress on the organism," explains Boris Kingma, a thermal physiologist at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research. When this happens, blood vessels constrict, impeding blood flow and increasing blood pressure. "If exposure to cold is short and you are young and healthy, this is not a problem, but if you are continuously in a cold environment, it can become a health risk," he warns.

This risk is particularly worrying for people with pre-existing health conditions, such as respiratory diseases or cardiovascular problems, and for older people. "If the body gets too cold, you lose strength and dexterity, which increases the risk of falls," Kingma explains. This is especially dangerous for older people, who may not realise that they have become too cold. "The negative effects of not having heating represent a serious health risk," he concludes.

Aravinda Guntupalli, Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Aberdeen, stresses that the ability to heat one's home is a fundamental right and believes that European governments must address this issue not only as an economic problem, but also as a question of human rights, health and politics.

In addition to implementing social policies such as fuel vouchers or discounts for those who cannot afford to heat their homes adequately, Guntupalli insists on the need to invest in infrastructure. "Many homes in Europe are insufficiently insulated and do not retain heat," she explains. Therefore, she believes that improving the insulation of these homes would help to conserve heat and reduce the economic burden. "We owe well-insulated homes to future generations," she concludes.

Official response

In December 2022, the Department of Social Rights and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration signed an agreement to improve the situation of energy poverty for groups at risk of social exclusion in Catalonia. According to the press release, the €11 million programme included 2,000 participating family units.

The Department of Social Rights of the Generalitat has not responded to the request for information on the measures it is taking to combat this problem and the results that the aforementioned initiative has yielded at the time of publication.

The Parliament of Catalonia approved a law in 2015 that prevented cutting off supplies to people who are considered vulnerable. This is Law 24/2015, of July 29, on urgent measures to deal with the emergency in the field of housing and energy poverty.

Jordi Sánchez, director of the social rights department of the Catalan Ombudsman, calls on the Government to urgently implement the decree that develops Law 24/2015 to protect vulnerable people and groups.

A European challenge

A study published in theInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health The European Commission says that energy poverty in Europe is caused by a combination of factors, such as high energy prices, low incomes, poor housing infrastructure and low energy efficiency.

Energy poverty is an important aspect of the ongoing energy price crisis in Europe, a crisis that has sparked protests in many countries and is a major concern among EU citizens. This crisis has been greatly influenced by disruptions to global supply chains during the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

According to the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), the average price of electricity in Europe increased by 50% between 2021 and 2022, and the average cost of natural gas doubled in that period.

This investigation is part of a cooperation between Diario ARA and CORRECTIV.Europe, a local journalism network that conducts data-driven investigative research together with local newsrooms across Europe. CORRECTIV.Europe is part of the non-profit investigative newsroom CORRECTIV, which is funded by donations. More information at correctiv.org/en/europe/.