Energy poverty affects more than the comfort of homes: it interferes with health. The solution is to renovate more houses.
There is “clearly, between two and three million people” who are in energy povertyguarantees João Pedro Gouveiaresearcher at the Faculty of Science and Technology (FCT), cited by .
According to the government, between 609 thousand and 660 thousand Portuguese citizens are actually in severe energy poverty. In January, Portugal’s long-term plan (until 2050) to combat this situation.
However, the researcher guarantees, the “objectives are highly ambitious”, such as the total eradication of this problem by 2050 or the intention to, by 2030, renovate 60% of houses.
“Currently, perhaps, we haven’t even renewed 5% so farthis war will not be won in five years”, says João Pedro Gouveia.
“Despite there being political recognition, the financial instruments, the support mechanisms for people, existing funding is clearly scarce to the scale of the problem that Portugal has. It’s not enough to just recognize or have a strategy. It is necessary to effectively implement the instruments to combat energy poverty in an effective way for the most vulnerable people”, he says.
Portugal is the European country “where most people report an inability to heat their homes”, he recalls, pointing out that the causes are “lack of efficient equipmentor even lack of equipment to heat the house”.
“People even have the equipment, but then they don’t have the moneytry to manage the family budget in another way and do not want or are unable to heat the house. The house really is so bad, with so many structural insulation problems and problems with windows that, even when heated, cannot be comfortable at home”.
At European level, there are around 35 million people in a situation of energy poverty, but the researcher guarantees that the number could reach 100 millionwhether in winter, when people are cold at home, or in summer, when it can also be hot.
According to , people who suffer from energy poverty are more likely to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, arthritis, inflammation and falls. Furthermore, they present a lower life expectancy.
Until mental health may be affected, as pointed out by someone published last year in The Lancet.
According to João Pedro Gouveia, this issue is, as it has “consequences for health”, “increasingly relevant”.
