Causes of Fuel Poverty
Fuel poverty is caused by a convergence of four factors:
- low income, which is often linked to absolute poverty
- high fuel prices, including the use of relatively expensive fuel sources (such as electricity in the UK, aggravated by higher tariffs for low-volume energy users)
- poor energy efficiency of a home, e.g. through low levels of insulation and old or inefficient heating systems
- under-occupancy: according to UK government statistics, on average those in the most extreme fuel poverty live in larger than average homes
The sharp rise in fuel prices from 2006-8 has led to an estimated doubling of the numbers in fuel poverty in countries where it is a major problem.
A number of illnesses, including cancer can exacerbate fuel poverty.
Read more about this topic: Fuel Poverty
Famous quotes containing the words fuel and/or poverty:
“I had an old axe which nobody claimed, with which by spells in winter days, on the sunny side of the house, I played about the stumps which I had got out of my bean-field. As my driver prophesied when I was plowing, they warmed me twice,—once while I was splitting them, and again when they were on the fire, so that no fuel could give out more heat. As for the axe,... if it was dull, it was at least hung true.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The hour when you say, “What does my happiness matter? It is poverty and filth, and a wretched complacency. Yet my happiness should justify existence itself!””
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)