Faculty of Science and Technology

Society and Environment Research Theme Seminar

While fuel poverty is often seen as a social problem, the solution is to improve the energy efficiency of the home, providing strong synergies with climate change policy. Meanwhile over 5m households are suffering from fuel poverty in the UK. Large sums of money are spent to reduce the problem, for instance on winter fuel payments, though these were insufficient to prevent a 49% increase in excess winter deaths in 2008-9. This is an interdisciplinary problem with a strong political presence.

Biography

Until September 2007, Brenda led the Lower Carbon Futures group at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. In November 2007, she wrote Home Truths: a low-carbon strategy to reduce UK housing emissions by 80% by 2050 for FOE and The Co-op Bank. She has subsequently provided supporting evidence for the Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged’s Judicial Review of the Government’s policies on fuel poverty in England, now at Appeal. Brenda has, in theory, retired as an Emeritus Fellow of the University of Oxford. Her main focus has been on writing Fixing Fuel Poverty – challenges and solutions for Earthscan, published in December and the subject of this seminar.