The office warns of the risk that more households will suffer in paying bills when the cold gets worse and urges the city council to save on electricity costs
The general rise in prices and the runaway increase in electricity costs are coupled with a logical conclusion: energy poverty is on the rise. The Sindicatura de Greuges de Barcelona has warned this Thursday of the rise of the straits to face the receipts in the homes of the capital.
Although the data provided by the city council is not up to date, the figures contained in the latest report by the Barcelona Ombudsman hint at the magnitude of the economic stagnation that has occurred without transition to the collapse caused by the pandemic: between January and September 2021, already with the amount of electricity out of control, the council’s energy advice points attended to 19,222 Barcelonans. They are more than the 12,079 residents who attended the service throughout 2019, the year before the first onslaught of covid.
In the absence of knowing the figures for consultations in 2022, the Barcelona Ombudsman, David Bondia, has concluded that it is obvious that more households in the Catalan capital are experiencing extreme difficulties in paying their bills. “And it will increase the number of people who will fall into energy poverty at the end of the year and next year”, Bondia predicted, demanding that energy be protected as a “human right & rdquor; so as not to leave the most humble population deprived.
The Síndic has expressed that he fears a “setback & rdquor; in the ability of households in Barcelona to supply themselves in the coming months, when the need to shelter from the cold will be measured with amounts that have reached disproportionate levels. “If there are households that must allocate a significant part of their budget to energy, other basic needs, such as food or education, will be left uncovered”, Bondia has warned. In this sense, he has demanded that caps be set on energy prices so that “families cover other needs, which are also basic rights & rdquor ;.
Most of the people who requested help during 2021 at the energy advice points in Barcelona were women, 12,549 in all. They almost doubled the 6,662 men who showed up. “Children, women and the elderly are most affected by energy poverty. In addition, they are the ones who are most mobilized to seek solutions & rdquor ;, pointed out Eva G. Chueca, deputy of the Síndic.
Savings request to Colau
Given the prolonged upward trend, the Sindicatura de Greuges de Barcelona has urged the city council to save energy costs. The consistory has informed the office that, for now, the expense has not increased. The municipal government assures that the price escalation has not had an effect at the moment on the municipal coffers because it has agreed prices in multi-year contracts with the suppliers, although the evolution of the invoices that the consistory has received in 2022 remains to be known.
In 2021, the city council foresaw a disbursement of 28.4 million euros for energy consumption, almost three million less than in 2019. In any case, Chueca has opined that the city council has “a way to go & rdquor; to save.
“We know that not all facilities and public spaces are energy efficient to a sufficient degree. Measures have been taken in libraries, for example, but the set of equipment has not yet been reached. It is a challenge that the city council must face & rdquor ;, he pointed out. For the imminent Christmas campaign, the city council has announced that it will turn off the decorative lighting one hour before to minimize spending. Bondia has preferred not to get wet about whether the local executive should cut even more in the decorations of the commercial routes. “We cannot assess it before seeing what impact it has & rdquor ;, she has said.
excessive consumption
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The Sindicatura has transferred 20 recommendations to the government of Mayor Ada Colau to try to alleviate the energy crisis. Among other proposals, it advocates promoting self-consumption and the creation of energy communities through the installation of solar panels. Also proposes that studies and audits be drawn up to locate homes with excessive energy consumption and, in turn, those that limit it to the maximum due to lack of income, at the risk of falling into unworthy living conditions.
The Sindicatura de Greuges has remarked that Next Generation funds are a “window of opportunity” for a “just energy transition & rdquor;, which does not marginalize the weakest economies in Barcelona in the change towards renewable sources. In any case, Bondia has not specified whether the income from the European Union for energy renovation should be transferred through direct aid to disadvantaged households. He has pointed out that it is up to the bipartite of ‘comuns’ and PSC to decide.