Energy Poverty and Household Access to Electricity Services in International, Regional and National Law

Abstract

Household access to essential energy services such as warmth, cooling, lighting, clean cooking or power for communication and appliances is increasingly considered to be vital to human development. People’s decent living standards, health, well-being and social inclusion depend on affordable, reliable and high-quality access to energy, but instead, energy poverty is considered a growing concern globally. This contribution assesses how international law, European Union law and national law has so far responded to questions of universal household energy access and energy poverty. It focuses particularly on how states may regulate in favour of universal access to affordable, continuous and high-quality electricity supply, and pays additional attention to the role of private service providers and trends to recognise energy access as a human rights concern. In terms of the latter, the paper provides evidence that electricity access is increasingly couched in legal 'fundamental rights' or 'human rights'-terms, at UN-level, EU-level and in various national jurisdictions, such as Colombia, South-Africa or the Philippines.

Keywords: energy poverty, energy access, electricity access, electricity supply, human rights, right to energy, international law, European law, Colombia, South-Africa, Philippines international human rights law, constitutional law, constitutional courts