Energy poverty leap during the pandemic: the case of Ukraine

Abstract

As recent studies showed, the post-communist countries have relatively the highest level of energy poverty in Europe. The poorest of them still are not explored. So, the authors decided to study this problem for Ukraine as one of the largest and poorest post-communist countries in Europe. This Eastern European country experienced a number of challenges before the pandemic, including a war with Russia in the east of the country, high external debt, high energy intensity and low added value of the economy. The purpose of this study is to measure how deep the energy poverty problem in Ukraine is and how it changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying selected quantitative and financial indicators, the authors showed the problem of energy poverty in Ukraine remained acute at the beginning of 2020, especially in terms of heating. Moreover, its level in Ukraine was three times higher than the average level for the all the EU countries. Furthermore, in 2020, during the pandemic, there were drastic increasing arrears of households on utility bills that meant a new leap of energy poverty in Ukraine. This study did not search for the causes of the identified leap in energy poverty, which apparently connected with the global and local economic and social consequences of the pandemic. However, it revealed the depth of this problem and the lower impact of the nature factor (air temperature) on energy poverty during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Further research is required to identify the underlying drivers and develop possible solutions to this problem in Ukraine and other European countries suffering from high energy poverty.

Energy poverty in the Energy Community region: Interrogating policy formulation and coverage

“…Montenegro, while facing similar problems, has generally seen a small decrease in energy poverty rates, possibly as a result of changing energy production and price patterns (Streimikiene, 2022). In Ukraine, where the achievement of adequate levels of domestic heating is a key challenge, the pandemic has led to rapidly increasing utility bill arrears while compounding a set of difficult circumstances associated with high levels of income poverty and fossil gas prices (Goncharuk et al, 2021; Petrova et al, 2013). Energy poverty in Georgia is pervasive and has a strong rural dimension, linked to the lack of adequate infrastructure service provision – unlike other former Soviet states, Georgia dismantled its district heating infrastructure during the 1990s (UNESCAP, 2021).…”

Energy Re-Shift for an Urbanizing World

“…This problem is sometimes exacerbated by the inadequate actions of the authorities at all levels of government. In Ukraine, where the problem of energy poverty has worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of energy resources in 2020 (despite being slightly economically cheaper) was that they were harder to utilize [102,103]. The expansion of the European Union's energy poverty policies, i.e., fueled by clean energy for all Europeans, as well as regulations and the creation of the European Union Energy Poverty Observatory and the ENGAGER project [104,105], has begun to gradually address this problem, but there is still much to be done.…”

“…It is evident that the energy politics of these two countries showcase two different scenarios in terms of energy economics. In terms of the major cities in both countries, it equates to less urban energy output [103] and lower economic levels in Ukraine and more urban energy output [121,122] and higher economic levels in Poland.…”