European Energy Poverty Observatory (EPOV)

The European Energy Poverty Observatory is a 40 month project, starting from December 2016, aimed at engendering transformational change in knowledge about the extent of energy poverty in Europe, and measures to combat it.

Energy poverty can be understood as the inability to secure adequate levels of energy services (such as space heating, cooling, lighting and information technology), and is estimated to affect more than 50 million people in the European Union.

European Energy Poverty Observatory logo

The EPOV project is funded by the European Commission, and is implemented by a consortium of 13 organisations, including universities, advocacy groups, think tanks, and the business sector. The University of Manchester leads the consortium: Dr Harriet Thomson acts as Project Manager, while Professor Stefan Bouzarovski chairs the Steering Committee. 

Among other objectives, EPOV is geared at improving the transparency of information and policy by bringing together the disparate sources of data and knowledge that exist in varying degrees across the whole of the EU. It also provides a user-friendly and open-access resource that promotes public engagement as well as informed decision making by local, national and EU-level decision makers. The Observatory will support the work of interested stakeholders, based on a holistic approach to understanding and addressing energy poverty in the European Union. 

The main EPOV consortium members are:

The core partners will also be supported by a range of other energy poverty organisations:

The Observatory benefits from the research environment provided by the Collaboratory for Urban Resilience and Energy within the Manchester Urban Institute. 

To receive updates about EPOV, please sign up to our mailing list.