October 19 (SeeNews) - Western Balkans governments should adopt measurable definitions and monitoring criteria of energy poverty and vulnerable groups, organisations from the South East Europe Sustainable Energy Policy (SEE SEP) programme said in a new report.
Western Balkans have to undertake detailed analysis of the problem of energy poverty and to ensure publicly available data on energy expenditures and living conditions, the group of civil society organisations said in a report presented last week at the annual Parliamentary Plenum organised by the Energy Community in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"Financial support, such as compensation and support for paying the energy bills should be used as a measure after all cost-effective energy efficiency options have been implemented," the report, entitled Energy Poverty in Southeast Europe: Surviving the Cold, concludes. "It should not be the first measure as it does not contribute to overall improvement of quality of life and it does not promote rational energy use."
The organisations said that national governments need to introduce energy efficiency and energy saving measures, to stimulate the replacement of household appliances and inefficient heating systems, to distribute interest-free loans for deep renovation, and to establish low energy consumption requirements for all new social housing.
The Western Balkan countries face serious difficulties in the energy sector as a result of their turbulent history which led to infrastructural damage and stagnation or decline of national economies.The situation is additionally complicated by the inefficiency of the buildings, household appliances and the heating systems, according to the report.
Electricity production in the region originates mostly from coal-fired power plants, whose operation leads to pollution of the environment and causes health problems. The shift to a liberalised energy market and the high reliance on imports leads to increased energy prices in the region, the report said.
The process of liberalisation is not a problem by itself, but it has to be implemented with adequate protection mechanisms to enable smooth transition, the report said. Significant investment in energy efficiency is needed in order to prevent vulnerable groups from being pushed into energy poverty.
Energy poverty, in general terms, represents the inability of a household to secure adequate amounts of energy in the home. It is difficult to define what 'adequate amounts of energy' means but according to a standard 21 degrees Celsius in the living rooms is an optimal temperature.
According to the report, people who receive social welfare benefits, single-parent households and pensioners are more likely to be energy poor.
"Without funds available to invest in energy efficiency of their dwellings, to improve their heating systems, or to buy new household appliances, poor households are forced to give up on aspects of their basic living standards – decreasing living space in winter, turning down the thermostat, using inadequate heating, washing, cooking, lighting and in warmer climates, cooling services," the report concluded. "Many of those affected by energy poverty in the Western Balkans are forced to deal with the ‘heat or eat’."
Overall, 833 households in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia were visited.
"With the EU unable to provide a definitive solution or at least clear guidance how to fight this problem, it should be in the interest of governments of the most affected countries, those in SEE, to take their own initiative and lead by example as this is the only way to provide a sustainable, healthy and economically stable future for their citizens," the report suggested.
According to the report, inadequate access to energy is a common issue in Albania, where 20.7% of the population does not have an adequate heating and 11.2% of the connected households are late with paying their electricity bills.
More than half of the families visited in Bosnia and Herzegovina live in dwellings older than 36 years with partial or no insulation and inefficient windows. 40% of the visited households used coal for heating, while 46% of them reported the occurrence of draught through windows and doors which means high energy losses.
More than a quarter of the Croatian households pay their bill late, whereas some 13% of the population lives in households with leaky roofs, damp walls, floors or foundations. About 10% of people live in households which are unable to maintain adequate warmth during the coldest months.
In Kosovo, one of the poorest countries in Europe with GDP per capita about one-tenth that of EU-levels, most households use either wood or electricity for heating. Unreliable electricity supply and inability to cope with increasing energy costs make many households shift to wood fuel which in the nearest future will lead to serious deforestation of the country.
Some 40% of Macedonian homes have no thermal insulation at all. Most of the families (47%) use wood fuel to keep their homes warm in winter months.
In Montenegro, some 68% of households use electricity for heating, whereas the other main source of heating is wood, both being inefficient and costly.
According to the report, energy poverty in Serbia can be attributed mainly to lack of resources and lack of adequate information.