A MOTIVATION FOR ENERGY BASED POVERTY INDICATORS

A common method employed in tracking the success of poverty alleviation in ensuring sustainable development is through the use of a set of lead indicators which provide tangible measures of evaluating fluctuations in both poverty and environmental quality. A requirement of such lead indicators is that they be diverse in their approach, as indicators from different disciplines have their strengths and weaknesses. A motivation is made here for broadening the scope of such research through the inclusion of a set of energy based poverty indicators in the area of poverty assessment. Such energy poverty indicators provide an invaluable extra dimension in the assessment in that they relate to all three sustainability spheres: economic, social and environmental.