ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a global perspective on energy poverty, with the aid of novel theoretical approaches that disturb entrenched scientific preconceptions and policy prescriptions. It describes recent advances in the state of the art in energy poverty research, largely developed in response to the limitations of early scholarship on the subject. The book argues that procedural injustice underpins energy deprivation, with inadequate opportunities for vulnerable groups to participate in policy-making leading to a lack of consideration for their situation. It explains that energy poverty is fundamentally the result of deep structures of mutually reinforcing inequalities – economic, racial, gender-based and others – that exist in societies. The book also describes the stronger policy and solutions-based focus, critically analyzing current policy responses to energy deprivation and proposing how these might be improved.
