Will Plans to Ease Energy Poverty Go Up in Smoke? Assessing the Hungarian NECP through the Lens of Solid Fuel Users’ Vulnerabilities

Abstract

Hungary has one of the highest incidences of energy poverty in the European Union, and a high share of Hungarian low-income households rely on solid fuels. This paper first maps the energy vulnerabilities of Hungarian solid fuel users using six energy vulnerability factors. The mapping underlines that solid fuel users are more exposed to energy vulnerability than average households. This is followed by an analysis of energy-poverty-related objectives and measures outlined in the Hungarian National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), a key policy document of the green energy transition. The paper outlines that the NECP fails to comply with the requirement of setting energy poverty alleviation objectives. Furthermore, the outlined energy-poverty-related policies and measures fail to provide systematic solutions to energy-poverty drivers, especially those solid fuel users’ vulnerabilities. Hungary’s general antiegalitarian policy environment and the weak design of energy poverty measures in the NECP suggest severe deficiency regarding a just energy transition guarantee. A just energy transition in Hungary is therefore endangered by the fact that EU energy poverty alleviation requirements fall under soft-law coordination mechanisms that make such requirements hardly enforceable in a member state with an antipoor policy bias that is reluctant to tackle energy poverty.

"Landscape" of energy burden: role of solid fuels in Central and Eastern European residential heating

“…Already the 'Fit for 55' states that biomass consumption has to be kept within the limits of sustainability, but it neglects to reveal the connection between traditional biomass use and energy poverty. As Bajomi, Feldmár, and Tirado-Herrero (2021) conclude traditional biomass and other solid fuel users are more exposed to energy vulnerability and they are the most affected by energy poverty [19]. Solid fuels are typical fuel sources for poor households (i.e., lowest income groups).…”

“…This could mean several solutions including more efficient technologies. For example, the widely used thin-walled iron stoves have to be replaced by modern, more efficient brick stoves or ovens [19]. Burning fuelwood can be sustainable and efficient (both cost-effective and environmentally friendly) but only with proper heating equipment.…”

As essential as bread: Fuelwood use as a cultural practice to cope with energy poverty in Europe

“…This trend started in the late 2000s when rapidly increasing natural gas prices led to the expansion of energy poverty among the general population, which was accompanied by the substitution of natural gas with coal or firewood [9]. Solid fuel users are over-represented in low-income deciles [89] and among households living in the low energy efficiency singlefamily houses built before the 1990s [90]. Solid fuel heating is also prevalent among Hungarian Roma communities [91].…”

“…Solid fuel heating is also prevalent among Hungarian Roma communities [91]. Many households heating with solid fuels in Hungary use individual heaters such as inefficient metal stoves resulting in low and uneven levels of thermal comfort [90]. The Hungarian utility cost reduction program -a countrywide instrument for controlling the price of utility services and other regulated activities in place since 2013 (which has been scraped for high energy users in the meanwhile) -favors primarily upper-income households relying on natural gas, electricity, and district heating but does not cover solid fuels [89].…”