Public Symposium SCEPA

Energy poverty is a growing problem in Northwest Europe. Energy is indispensable for living a dignified and worthwhile life, and we generally speak of energy poverty when people are unable to secure adequate levels of energy services for home heating, cooling, lighting and information technology.
In the Netherlands, about 600,000 households were living in energy poverty in 2023; across Europe, between 50 and 125 million people in 2024. Municipalities and local public organizations across North-West Europe have developed local approaches to combat or reduce energy poverty. In the Interreg-NWE project Scaling Up the Energy Poverty Approach (SCEPA; 2023-2027) HAN is working internationally with governments or government organizations to collect, share knowledge about and scale up good practices against energy poverty.
On April 15, the School of Social Studies at HAN organizes a symposium on energy poverty in relation to the SCEPA project entitled “Involving residents in addressing energy poverty”. The focus will be on the perspective of residents and involving hard-to-reach groups. In a number of plenary contributions we will discuss the importance of social justice in the energy transition and the necessity of involving citizens (with experiential knowledge). In several workshops you will then have the opportunity to learn about good practices and findings from the project and ways to engage hard-to-reach groups in energy poverty approaches.
Program
- 12:30
Reception with coffee and tea
- 13:00
Plenary opening 'Involving residents in energy poverty approaches'
With chairman of the day Erik Jansen, lector Social Sustainable Practices, HAN, and Rob Verhofstad, Chairman of the Executive Board HAN.
- 13:15
Keynote lecture 1 What is energy for? Insights on mitigating energy poverty
Lecture Erik Jansen (professor Social Sustainable Practices of HAN UAS) gives insights and yields of the Interreg NEW SCEPA project on the scaling up of energy poverty approaches.
- 13:45
Keynote lecture 2 on the importance of experiential knowledge in enin mitigating poverty
by Riane Kuzee (Expertisecentre Sterk uit Armoede) en Jo Bothmer (European Anti Poverty Network
- 14:10
More on the Interreg NWE SCEPA project, Thijn de Voogd, project leader, Municipality of Arnhem.
- 14:20
Break and relocation
- 14:35
Workshop round 1
More information about the workshops will be shared on this page as soon as it is known. At arrival on the congres day, you choose which workshop you will follow.
- 15:40
Workshop round 2
More information about the workshops will be shared on this page as soon as it is known. At arrival on the congres day, you choose which workshop you will follow.
- 16:35
Plenary closure
- 17:00
Networking drinks
List of workshops

More information & contact
Would you like to know more about the meeting or the research? Then please contact us at: communicatie.amm@han.nl.