ABSTRACT
Dedicated to Piera Mainetti, my mother, who explained to me what it means to live in poverty.
Energy poverty occurs when a family spends more than 10% of its income to pay for the energy uses. This is a kind of relative poverty in Western countries (Europe, USA, etc.) cities and contribute to degrading the urban context. Energy poverty has also several effects on people in terms of physical/mental health and/or social disease, and its main causes are family income, job market, energy prices, climate context, and building features. This chapter aims to give an overall description of the elements that determine urban energy poverty, with a focus on the role played by urban settlements and buildings.
