The Association for Civil Rights in Israel took part in the work on a policy paper on energy poverty, as part of a project led by Itach-Ma'aki, Heschel Center for Sustainability and Shatil-New Israel Fund. The purpose of the document is to present the issue of energy poverty from a broad perspective presenting it as a complex and multidimensional challenge, which must be dealt with in the overall context of the climate crisis.
Energy poverty refers to households that do not have reliable, uninterrupted and secure access to essential energy services at the required lev el to live with dignity. The paper examines the phenomenon of energy poverty through the perspective of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on how access to energy services intersects with the goals of poverty eradication (Goal 1), promoting good health (Goal 3), Promoting gender equality (Goal 5) and tackling the climate crisis (Goal 13).
The document presents Israel's unique difficulties in dealing with energy poverty, including: the lack of an official definition acceptable to the state, the lack of a central body responsible for the issue, a lack of knowledge accumulated about the scope of the phenomenon, and accordingly – a list of solutions to tackle the problem. Since the term itself is absent from discourse, it is difficult to collect data on the extent of the phenomenon. The challenge is particularly great in Arab and Bedouin communities due to a series of economic, political and planning gaps unique to this population.
The document emphasizes that the state must be a significant factor in setting this policy, budgeting it, and implementing it, and presents a series of recommendations for policies dealing with energy poverty based on the developing research on the subject in Israel and abroad. The topics include:
1. Recognition of the right of every person to energy services that enables a dignified life, regardless of the ability or inability of people to pay for them.
2. Establishing an official definition of energy poverty and recognizing the phenomenon as a central issue that should be placed at the top of the agenda.
3. Ongoing mapping of the current situation in the field of energy poverty in Israel.
4. Creating plans for the renovation and acclimatization of existing residential buildings, with special reference to low-income households and people living in rental properties.
5. Making renewable energy accessible to all households in Israel.
6. Making information on the transition to renewable energies accessible to diverse populations, through various means and in translation into the prevelant languages spoken in Israel.
7. Planning economic tools such as carbon taxation in a way that does not harm disadvantaged populations.
8. Creating planning solutions for heat moderation in public spaces.
9. Strengthening the local government's ability to deal with energy poverty.
10 . Combining the efforts of various government ministries and bodies, and creating an inter-ministerial government mechanism that will be responsible and have the authority for framing and assimilating the field and of coordinating processes and actions between the various entities.
To view the position paper in Hebrew click here.
