The Energy Action Project investigates why energy poverty exists, and who is doing what to address it.
Marilyn Smith is Executive Director of The Energy Action Project.
Jointly developed by journalists and energy experts, The Energy Action Project (EnAct) aims to address two social issues: high levels of energy poverty and low levels of energy literacy, even in energy-rich areas.
With climate change on the global agenda and the energy sector undergoing massive transformation, EnAct aims to satisfy the growing demand for independent, accurate and accessible information. By finding creative ways to tell the story of energy, EnAct aims to empower people to make better decisions about how to produce and use it.
Photos bring to light how energy poverty affects people's daily lives. Whether in developing, emerging and industrialized countries, the energy poor often suffer poor health, are socially isolated, and face desperate economic circumstances. Seeing real problems up close can trigger strategic action.
Our outreach and social media activity, largely targeting the general public, has the simple goal of getting people to think about energy, every day. But EnAct knows it does more: followers often write to share how they've changed their behavior, for example by using EnAct's energy-saving tips at home. EnAct's multimedia websites dive deeply into the complexity of different aspects of energy poverty, with a strong focus on who is doing what for change. A parallel blog approach is proving effective for wildly diverse audiences: the public enjoys learning the basics while experts report citing our indepth content in papers and presentations.
Achieving universal access to energy, one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, requires coordinated effort in technology, policy and financing, as well as sensitivity to social and cultural challenges.
600 million people cope with outages & poor infrastructure. Photo: P. DiCampo/Liberia
EnAct aims to be the best place to find cohesive, ongoing reporting across all these areas, while also creating platforms through which experts can communicate more directly with public audiences.
EnAct is actively seeking partners and supporters. Small contributions enable us to send more visual journalists into the field, and continue to grow our general audience. Long-term, strategic partnerships let us launch the in-depth work that delivers high value to energy stakeholders.
EnAct believes energy sector players will benefit from increased energy access and a more energy-literate public. They are grateful for early enablers who recognize the value of independent energy reporting and supported the start-up phase.
• Every day, every person on the planet relies on some form of energy to meet basic needs - for cooking, heating, lighting, communications and mobility.
100 million people can't afford enough energy to keep properly warm or cool at home. Photo: P. DiCampo/UK
• Day after day after day, almost half the world subsists, unable to access the energy they need to sustain basic health and well-being.
• 2.7 billion people with no access to modern energy
Visit http://www.en-act.com or http://www.coldathome.today for more information on the project. For information on partnering with The Energy Action Project or supporting EnAct projects, email marilyn.smith@en-act.org.
Lead image: P. Madsen/Nepal
