Energy Disadvantage and Housing: Considerations Towards Establishing a Long Run Integrated Analysis Framework

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Lavinia Poruschi,John Gardner
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12494

The Australian Economic Review, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 530–540 DOI: 10.1111/1467-8462.12494

Energy Disadvantage and Housing: Considerations Towards

Establishing a Long Run Integrated Analysis Framework

Lavinia Poruschi and John Gardner*

Abstract

The relationship between housing quality and

energy disadvantage over the long run is a

complex interaction of growing interest. This

work navigates through conceptual def‌initions

and datasets to highlight gaps in monitoring

and evaluating energy disadvantage, particu-

larly the role of housing in perpetuating or

mitigating energy disadvantage. We f‌ind that

in Australia there is no agreed‐upon def‌inition

or metrics for energy poverty or energy

hardship, nor a panel or longitudinal housing

stock energy eff‌iciency dataset and discuss

options for remediating this.

1. The Terminology Basis for Energy

Disadvantage

Retail energy prices are being driven higher

by an energy transition triggered by climate

change mitigation and adaption efforts. This is

a once‐in‐a‐generation investment drive meant

to redesign the Australian household‐oriented

energy supply system so as to ensure its

reliability and sustainability. Yet, this initia-

tive raises questions about the future afford-

ability dimension of the energy supply.

1

Global energy security concerns, which are

leading to fuel shortages and, in particular,

higher prices for gas on the global market due

to the fallout from the war in Ukraine, are also

driving generalised inf‌lation and increases in

energy costs at home.

Given these trends on the global stage that

are having energy cost ramif‌ications across

the nation, the main focus of this article is to

analyse how the concept of ‘energy disadvan-

tage’can be tracked among different socio‐

economic circumstances and, in particular,

how it is connected to housing quality. We

acknowledge that there are a number of terms

used in the scientif‌ic literature to denote

‘energy disadvantage’and that, depending

on the research group and geographic loca-

tion, can overlap in meaning or have quite

distinct interpretations. For example, the

literature contains terms such as ‘energy

poverty’,‘fuel poverty’,‘energy hardship’,

‘energy deprivation’,‘energy vulnerability’,

‘energy inequity’and ‘energy disadvantage’.

The intent here is not to delve into the detail

* Commonwealth Scientif‌ic and Industrial Research

Organisation, Brisbane, Queensland, 2022, Australia.

Corresponding author: Poruschi, email: <Lavinia.

Poruschi@csiro.au>.

This work was carried out in 2020 under a project funded

by the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science,

Energy and Resources as a part of its Finkel 6.6 project

and under a small project funded by the Commonwealth

Scientif‌ic and Industrial Research Organisation in 2022.

The views expressed here do not ref‌lect the views of the

Commonwealth Government of Australia nor those of the

Commonwealth Scientif‌ic and Industrial Research

Organisation.

© 2022 The Authors. The Australian Economic Review published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of The University

of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, Faculty of Business and Economics

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.