CALL FOR PAPERS: HOW TO MAKE ENERGY POVERTY HISTORY?

This announcement solicits papers for a special issue of Energy & Environment on energy poverty.

Ensuring secure and affordable supplies of energy is one of the biggest challenges the international community faces in the 21st century. Long-term availability of affordable energy worldwide is paramount to economic growth, poverty reduction and political stability.

Lack of energy is directly correlated with deprivation and poverty, including restriction of social mobility, low education levels and conflict. Access to affordable energy is a precondition for alleviating poverty and economic development. A quarter of the global population lack any access to electricity while almost half of the world’s people have to rely on traditional biomass, agricultural residues and dung, for cooking and heating.

But rising energy costs are also having a detrimental impact on developed and industrialised countries where poor and low-income households are hit hardest. Policies to tackle climate change have added to the rising cost of fuel and energy. Emissions trading schemes, subsidies for renewable energy technologies and bio-fuels, raising taxes on petrol and cars, imposing environmental charges on air travel and other ‘green’ taxes have increased energy costs significantly. As a result, the number of people living in energy poverty has risen steeply.

Global energy consumption today amounts to 15 terawatts. In 2050, if 9 billion people adopted the energy lifestyle of Western Europe, power production would need to rise threefold, to 45 terawatts. Conservative estimates of global energy need for 2050 still see a doubling of energy demand in the next 4 decades. Unless this rapidly growing energy demand is met by new and abundant energy supplies, both global and energy poverty is unlikely to be reduced significantly.

This special issue of Energy & Environment (guest-edited by Benny Peiser) will focus on the key problems of energy poverty in the developing and developed countries.

Key Topics and issues:

· Energy poverty in the developing world
· Energy poverty in Europe and the USA
· Energy Poverty, mobility and social mobility
· Free markets vs central planning
· Energy poverty and health
· Energy poverty and winter excess deaths
· Climate policy and energy poverty
· Green taxes and energy poverty
· Emission trading schemes and energy prices
· Government subsidies and energy prices
· Energy nationalism and energy cartels
· Energy markets, liberalisation and competition
· Cost-effectiveness of new energy technologies
· Energy innovation: free markets vs command and control
· Government policies on energy poverty reduction
· Local governments and energy poverty

The papers will be peer-refereed according to the usual standards and procedures for the journal. Manuscripts should conform to the E&E guidelines and authors’ instructions; see http://www.multi-science.co.uk/gen_authors.htm

Interested authors should send a brief abstract as an e-mail attachment to

Dr Benny Peiser
Faculty of Science
Liverpool John Moores University
15-21 Webster Street
Liverpool L3 2ET
United Kingdom