Addressing Energy Poverty in the light of Climate Change in Rural Nepal

能源是发展论述的核心，是人类福祉和经济增长的支点。不幸的是，全球南方的大多数人无法获得足够的能源服务，导致能源贫困（EP）;剥夺对健康和福祉，社会参与成果产生不利影响，并限制经济发展（IEA 2020）。在气候变化（CC）下，缓解EP的挑战是复杂的，因为CC影响能源需求并对能源基础设施产生不利影响（Sattler 2016）。因此，在我们试图设计对未来几代人敏感的环境保护缓解政策时，根据CC探索环境保护至关重要。在尼泊尔，尽管在电力覆盖和质量方面取得了进展，但70%的人口无法获得清洁燃料和技术（世界银行2020年）。同时，尼泊尔气候变化的影响在世界上排名第七，对水资源及其重要的水力发电产生了严重影响（Pathak 2010年）。现有的环境保护政策和气候变化政策没有充分融合，无法有效应对当前的挑战，更不用说后代的脆弱性了。因此，鉴于尼泊尔目前和预计的气候变化影响，本项目试图通过解决环境保护问题来填补这一空白。在全球范围内，人们对环境保护的概念化和衡量方式存在分歧（汤姆森，2020年）。大多数现有方法未能解决气候变化的多层面性质，而那些解决了的方法在综合气候变化的影响和解决后代的脆弱性方面做得不够（见Pachauri和Spreng，2011年; Nussbaumer等人，2012年）。这些办法缺乏一个能够在政策议程中同时处理环境保护和气候变化问题的基础框架。整合能源和气候变化政策的认真尝试要么仅限于发达国家（Lovell等人，2009年），要么是技术性的，没有充分考虑社会文化因素。尼泊尔的环保话语很少考虑社会领域，强调基于获取的方法和“能源阶梯”的简单化概念（Parajuli 2011）。尼泊尔能源政策（尼泊尔政府，2013年）在整个文件中只使用了三次EP一词，在基础设施接入和增加消费方面仍然采取传统的方法。它没有认识到环保的多面性，福尔斯在解决气候变化影响方面做得不够。相反，气候变化政策（尼泊尔政府，2011年）没有解决能源脆弱性问题。对尼泊尔的研究在探讨农村家庭的能源选择方面不够，特别是从气候变化的角度。尽管电力供应有所增加，但清洁燃料的使用保持稳定（世界银行，2020年），生物质仍然是农村地区的首选燃料，这对尼泊尔的能源消费贡献很大。最近，EP学者转向能力方法（CA）整合基于权利的观点。由Day et al（2016）首次开发的CA应用于能源，将能源定位为扩展能力和多维福祉的手段，而不是其本身的目的。这种方法敦促考虑如何以替代方式实现能力，同时在CC中进行情境化。也有关于能力上限（Holland 2015）和未来几代人的能力（Lessmann et al 2013）的辩论，作为解决CC的一种方式。因此，《保护性协定》提供了一种可能富有成效的概念方法，将尼泊尔的生态保护和气候变化问题结合起来。该项目旨在根据气候变化的影响解决尼泊尔的环境保护问题，目的是制定政策，减轻对子孙后代敏感的环境保护。为了做到这一点，该项目设定了以下目标：-了解农村家庭的能源选择与能力的关系以及CC的影响。探讨气候变化对尼泊尔环境保护和能源系统脆弱性的影响，以及机构/治理对此的反应。

Energy is the heart of the development discourse-it is the fulcrum of human well-being and economic growth. Unfortunately, the majority in the Global South lacks access to adequate energy services, resulting in Energy Poverty (EP); the deprivation which adversely impacts health and wellbeing, social participation outcomes, and limits economic development (IEA 2020). Under climate change (CC), the challenge to alleviate EP is complicated as CC impacts energy demands and adversely affects energy infrastructure (Sattler 2016). It is therefore crucial to explore EP in the light of CC as we attempt to design policy that is sensitive to future generations in EP alleviation.In Nepal, 70% of the population lack access to clean fuel and technologies despite the progress in coverage and quality of electricity access (World Bank 2020). Concurrently, Nepal ranks seventh for CC impacts in the world, with critical impacts on water resources and its significant hydropower generation (Pathak 2010). Existing policy on EP alleviation and CC is not sufficiently converging and fails to address current challenges effectively, let alone the vulnerability of future generations. Therefore, this project attempts to fill this gap by addressing EP, given current and projected CC impacts in the context of Nepal.Globally, there is disagreement on how EP is conceptualised and measured (Thomson 2020). Most existing approaches fail to address its multidimensional nature and those that do, fall short in integrating the impacts of CC and addressing the vulnerabilities of future generations (see Pachauri and Spreng 2011, Nussbaumer et al. 2012). These approaches lack an underpinning framework that can address both EP and CC in policy agendas. Serious attempts to integrate energy and CC policy are either limited to the developed world (Lovell et al. 2009) or technical in nature, with insufficient consideration of socio-cultural dimensions. There is scarce consideration of the social realm in Nepalese EP discourse, which emphasises an access-based approach and the simplistic idea of the 'energy ladder' (Parajuli 2011). The Nepalese Energy Policy (GoN 2013), which uses the term EP just three times throughout the document, still takes a conventional approach on infrastructural access and increased consumption. It fails to acknowledge the multidimensional nature of EP and falls short in addressing the CC impacts. Conversely, CC policy (GoN 2011) does not address energy vulnerabilities. Research on Nepal is inadequate in exploring energy choices of rural households, especially from CC perspective. Despite growth in access to electricity, use of clean fuel has remained stable (World Bank 2020) and biomass is still the preferred fuel choice in rural areas, which contributes significant Nepalese energy consumption. Recently, EP scholars have turned to the Capability Approach (CA) to integrate rights-based perspectives. The CA application to energy, first developed by Day et al (2016), positions energy as means to expand capabilities and multi-dimensional wellbeing rather than an end in itself. This approach urges consideration of how capabilities may be realised in alternative ways, whilst contextualising in CC. There have also been debates on capability ceilings (Holland 2015) and the capabilities of future generations (Lessmann et al 2013) as a way to address CC. As such, the CA provides a potentially fruitful conceptual approach to integrate EP and CC concerns in Nepal. This project aims to address EP problems in Nepal in the light of CC impacts, with an aim to shape policy to alleviate EP that is sensitive to future generations. In order to do so, this project sets the following objectives:-Understand rural household's energy choices in relation to the perceived relationship with capabilities and with reference to the impacts of CC.-Explore the impact of CC on EP and the energy system vulnerability in Nepal, and institutional/governance reaction to this.