'Energy poverty' refers to a state in which people cannot secure even the minimum amount of energy required for survival. It's not simply about lacking electricity. It means being unable to cool your home in summer, heat it in winter, or even access clean water.
There is a name for the silence of a room too hot to breathe in, or too cold to move through. It is the summer with no cooling, the winter with no heat. It is the tap that runs but does not give clean water.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned in its 2023 report: "As the climate crisis intensifies, the global energy-poor population could reach 20% by 2030." Ironically, those most vulnerable to climate change often live in areas where the transition to clean energy is the slowest.
Most will be in places where adaptation comes not in years, but in decades. Where even a single solar panel on a rooftop feels like a far-off promise.
A summer without cooling is not simply "hot." It can overload the heart and lungs, and claim the weakest lives first. In South Korea, experts warn that cooling disparity deaths will become a significant social issue after 2030.
A summer without cooling is the kind of heat that presses against your lungs, that hums in your skull, that makes the air feel heavier than water. It is the kind of heat where the most fragile lives fall first, quietly and without news.
Energy is not just a technological issue. It is fundamentally the question: Can life be protected? Can you install even a single solar panel? Can you convert a gust of wind or a drop of rain into energy? In the 21st century, these are becoming the very standards of human survival.
It is the quiet, desperate question that decides who survives. And sometimes, survival begins with something as small as the decision to reach for sunlight.