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

能源是发展话语的核心——它是人类福祉和经济增长的支点。不幸的是，全球南方的大多数国家无法获得足够的能源服务，导致能源贫困；对健康和福祉、社会参与结果产生不利影响并限制经济发展的剥夺（国际能源署，2020年）。在气候变化（CC）下，缓解EP的挑战是复杂的，因为CC会影响能源需求并对能源基础设施产生不利影响（Sattler 2016）。因此，当我们试图设计对未来几代人在环境污染缓解中敏感的政策时，在CC的基础上探索环境污染是至关重要的。在尼泊尔，尽管电力供应的覆盖率和质量有所提高，但仍有70%的人口无法获得清洁燃料和技术（世界银行，2020年）。同时，尼泊尔在CC影响方面排名世界第七，对水资源及其重要的水力发电产生了重大影响（Pathak 2010）。现有的环境保护缓解政策和气候变化政策没有充分融合，未能有效应对当前的挑战，更不用说子孙后代的脆弱性了。因此，鉴于尼泊尔目前和预计的CC影响，本项目试图通过解决EP问题来填补这一空白。在全球范围内，对于如何概念化和测量EP存在分歧（Thomson 2020）。大多数现有的方法都未能解决其多维性，而那些解决了的方法，在整合CC的影响和解决后代的脆弱性方面也存在不足（参见Pachauri和spring 2011， Nussbaumer等人2012）。这些方法缺乏一个基础框架，可以同时解决政策议程中的环保和环保问题。整合能源和CC政策的认真尝试要么仅限于发达国家（Lovell et al. 2009），要么本质上是技术性的，没有充分考虑社会文化层面。尼泊尔EP话语中很少考虑社会领域，强调基于获取的方法和“能源阶梯”的简单概念（Parajuli 2011）。尼泊尔能源政策（GoN 2013）在整个文件中仅三次使用了“EP”一词，在基础设施接入和增加消费方面仍然采用传统方法。它没有认识到环境保护的多维性，在解决气候变化影响方面也存在不足。相反，CC政策（GoN 2011）没有解决能源脆弱性问题。对尼泊尔农村家庭能源选择的研究不足，特别是从CC的角度。尽管电力供应有所增长，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耗贡献很大。近年来，EP学者开始转向能力方法（Capability Approach， CA）来整合基于权利的视角。CA在能源中的应用，首先由Day等人（2016）开发，将能源定位为扩展能力和多维福祉的手段，而不是本身的目的。这种方法敦促考虑如何以其他方式实现能力，同时在CC中进行背景化。也有关于能力上限（Holland 2015）和后代能力（Lessmann et al 2013）作为解决CC的一种方式的争论。因此，CA提供了一种潜在的富有成效的概念方法来整合尼泊尔的EP和CC问题。该项目旨在根据CC的影响解决尼泊尔的EP问题，旨在制定政策以减轻对子孙后代敏感的EP问题。为此，本项目设定了以下目标：-了解农村家庭的能源选择与可感知的能力关系，并参考CC的影响。-探索CC对EP和尼泊尔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.