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FUEL POVERTY in HUNGARY a First Assessment

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FUEL POVERTY in HUNGARY a First Assessment - Final project report - FUEL POVERTY IN HUNGARY A first assessment Sergio Tirado Herrero Prof. Diana Ürge-Vorsatz Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy (3CSEP) Central European University (CEU) Prepared in collaboration with The Environmental Justice Working Group VÉDEGYLET – Protect the Future ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Particularly influential was the contribution of Védegylet’s Environmental Justice Working Group (Eszter Kovách, Judit Bari, Kristóf Szombati, Bódvalenke's project, etc.) in the definition, description and understanding of fuel poverty in Hungary. E. Kovách also provided detailed explanations on the Hungarian social service system and was of great help for the case studies in Section 3. Our gratitude extends of course to all the persons and organisations who shared their time and perceptions in interviews and the field visit to Bódvalenke. Katja Korytarova (3CSEP) provided useful information on policies in Hungary, Krista Harper (University of Massachusetts) shared the results of a relevant case study of Roma households in the Borsod county and Attilla Melegh (Népességtudományi Kutatóintézet, KSH) kindly led us to the core of the KSH energy expenditures statistics staff. The final version of this report also benefited substantially from comments by Tracey Wheatley and Zsolt Boda (Védegylet). As usual, the sole responsibility for mistakes or omissions remains on the authors. Table of CONTENTS 1. SETTING THE FRAME ............................................................................................ 4 1.1 Fuel poverty: definitions and policy relevance ........................................................ 4 1.2 Fuel poverty in Central and Eastern Europe ...........................................................5 1.3 The Hungarian case ................................................................................................. 7 2. MEASURING FUEL POVERTY IN HUNGARY ....................................................... 8 2.1 Approaches to measuring fuel poverty ................................................................... 8 2.2 Quantitative measurements of fuel poverty in Hungary ........................................ 8 2.2.1 Energy prices and households’ income sources .............................................. 8 2.2.2 The energy performance of the residential stock .......................................... 10 2.2.3 Measures based on the expenditure approach .............................................. 11 2.2.4 Measures based on the consensual approach ............................................... 13 2.2.4.1 Inability to keep the home adequately warm .............................................. 13 2.2.4.2 Arrears on utility bills .................................................................................. 15 2.2.4.3 Leaking roof, damp walls, floors or foundation, or rot in window frames or floor ......................................................................................................................... 16 2.2.5 The health impact of fuel poverty: excess winter mortality (EWM) and morbidity effects ..................................................................................................... 17 3. CASE STUDIES ....................................................................................................... 18 3.1. Beyond figures and statistics ................................................................................ 18 3.2. Case studies. The experience of fuel poverty in Hungary .................................... 19 3.2.1 In the outback. Fuel poverty in deprived rural Roma communities ............. 19 3.2.2 The thermal trap. District heating (DH) in suburban areas ........................ 21 3.2.3 Old and cold. Pensioners in urban areas. .................................................... 22 3.2.4 A glance to the other side. Utility companies and local governments ........ 23 4. THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONS ................................................................................. 24 4.1 Context and trends ................................................................................................ 24 4.2. Current policies related to fuel poverty in Hungary ............................................ 24 4.2.1 Support to households and consumers ......................................................... 24 4.2.2 Investing in energy efficiency for the residential sector .............................. 26 4.2.3 Enhancing the energy security ..................................................................... 26 4.3 Other small scale initiatives .................................................................................. 27 5. KEY MESSAGES .......................................................................................................... 27 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 31 2 List of TABLES and FIGURES Table 1. The geographies of fuel poverty in CEE and the fSU..........................................6 Figure 1. Changes in prices of energy carriers and main household income sources (wages and pensions) in Hungary (2000-2008)...............................................................9 Figure 2. Evolution of the ODEX energy efficiency index for households. Hungary vs. EU and selected countries, 2000-2007............................................................................10 Figures 3. Percentage of per capita net income devoted to the household’s energy expenses. Hungary 2000-2007........................................................................................12 Figure 4.1. Percentage of the population unable to keep the home adequately warm. Hungary vs. EU-27............................................................................................................14 Figure 4.2. Percentage of the population unable to keep the home adequately warm. Hungary (household types)...............................................................................................14 Figure 5.1. Percentage of the population with arrears on utility bills. Hungary vs. EU- 27.......................................................................................................................................15 Figure 5.2. Percentage of the population with arrears on utility bills. Hungary (household types)..............................................................................................................15 Figure 6.1. Percentage of the population with leaking roof, damp walls, floors or foundation, or rot in window frames or floor at home. Hungary vs. EU-27....................16 Figure 6.2. Percentage of the population with leaking roof, damp walls, floors or foundation, or rot in window frames or floor at home (household types)......................16 Table 2. Excess winter mortality in Hungary (1995–2007)..........................................17 Table 3. Estimate of EWD attributed to fuel poverty-related living conditions (Hungary, 1995–2007).....................................................................................................18 List of ABBREVIATIONS CEE – Central and Eastern Europe COICOP – Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose CHP – Combined Heat and Power CPI – Consumer Price Index DALY – disability-adjusted life years DH – district heating EBRD – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development EUROSTAT – Statistical Office of the European Communities EU SILC – EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions EWD – excess winter deaths EWM – excess winter mortality fSU– former Soviet Union GHG – greenhouse gases IEA – International Energy Agency kgoe – kilograms of oil equivalent KSH – Központi Statiszkai Hivatal / Hungarian Central Statistical Office MaTáSzSz –Magyar Távhőszolgáltatók Szakmai Szövetségé / Association of Hungarian District Heating Enterprises NMS 10 – The 10 New Member States that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 WHO – World Health Organization 3 1. SETTING THE FRAME 1.1 Fuel poverty: definitions and policy relevance The concept of fuel poverty can be located in the broad frame of the lack of or inadequate access to energy services, which refers to the lack access, mostly in developing countries to quality energy services as those provided, for instance, by electricity (Birol, 2007; Pachauri and Spreng, 2003). This is an issue of a much larger (global) scope as it is estimated that 2 billion people worldwide suffer from various major access-to-energy problems (Sagar, 2005). Clearly, Hungarian society does not suffer from a widespread lack of access to quality energy carriers but there are concerns about the affordability of energy services as income is well below EU average, energy prices have increased substantially in late years (Section 2.2.1) and there is evidence of the low energy performance of its residential stock (Section 2.2.2). In this way, fuel poverty is defined, for the purposes of this assessment, as the inability to afford adequate energy services for the household. The apparently more common wording ‘fuel poverty’ is employed in this report, as noted in its title and main headlines, without failing to recognize that ‘energy poverty’ is also a preferred phrasing in recent key studies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The proposed definition can be put in the context of previous research. An often cited operational definition of fuel poverty first proposed by Boardman (1991, p. 201, in Morrison and Shortt, 2008) reads as the “inability to obtain
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