To heat or to eat: Scrutinizing the institutional response to energy poverty in Rotterdam

The sudden extreme rise in energy prices across Europe and elsewhere due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has made apparent that even in affluent countries like the Netherlands, energy poverty – which comprises the combination of low income, high energy bills, and a home of high energy loss through inadequate insulation – poses a serious threat to numerous peoples livability. Subsequent increased public and policy scrutiny has precipitated a more diversified stakeholder landscape on a local level. This article investigates the institutional response to energy poverty and the lived experience of involved stakeholders in the urban area of Rotterdam. Through fifteen semi-structured interviews with Rotterdam municipal government officials, housing corporations, social entrepreneurs, foundations and community organizations, five main themes emerged summarizing the key challenges and opportunities around the energy poverty response: the effects of the energy crisis, the problem's complexity, collaboration among stakeholders, the need for funding linked across energy poverty stakeholders, and just energy transitions. Implications from this research suggest a need for prominent focus on efficiency policy, the provision of long-term structural subsidies (to refurbish insulated housing stock rather than ad hoc monetary payouts to help the energy poor cope with price surges), as well as the need for stakeholders to assume accountability through more extensive internal and external collaboration. Investing in sustainability and social justice solutions through clean energy for indoor climate control and state-of-the-art insulation results in the single action of improving housing stock multisolving for various problems resulting in energy poverty.