Page 183 - Proceeding 2015

MU?ATESCU Virgil and COMĂNESCU Mihaela FAMP

ENERGY EFFICIENCY – A CHALLENGE FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES CCASP

strategies and public policies have to properly integrate local policies to protect and reduce the number
of such consumers.

As was showed, fuel poverty is caused by an interaction between expensive energy bills, low incomes,
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11 TH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
combined with additional elements like home maintenance and energy supply. The consequences are
(Mu?atescu and Dumitrescu, 2015):

? Low level of living comfort;

? Increased risk of heart diseases and viruses induced diseases;

? Reduced number of school and job activities;

? Increased appeal to the health system;

? Less food, on the principle: “heat or food”;

? Dangerous strategies to approach vulnerability situation by disconnecting from the heating
30 th – 31 st October 2015 ”Strategic Management for Local Communities” Bucharest Local authorities have – in this respect – an essential role to mitigate the risks of such consequences.
sources.

And to better underline the importance of adequate policies on heating as public service it is worth
mentioning that there is an interesting initiative proposed in Great Britain. In this initiative, it is proposed
a connection between fuel energy and the human rights under the idea that „ all of us have the right to

access sustainable energy to ensure the basic necessities” (Christman, 2014).

Through a parallelism with The Bill of Rights from 1689, a campaign named Fuel Poverty Action (2014)
launched in GB Parliament a declaration with the title: Energy Bill of Rights that has the purpose to

„reaffirm that all must have standard basic rights to accessing clean, affordable, and controlled in a
democratic way”. The most powerful motivation for such approach is that this allows passing from
„goodwill” to „mandatory”, and rapid eradication of fuel poverty is imposed, becoming the only way of

action.

4. FUEL POVERTY IN ROMANIA. ROLE OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES

In Romania, it is considered that fuel poverty (as part of energy poverty) appears when the normal
conditions of comfort are not met (temperatures inside the apartment/house) either because the lack of
access to energy, or because – if this access exists – the family is not able to buy this service in

quantity and quality requested.

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