Assessment of energy poverty convergence: A global analysis

This study uncovers a fresh global evidence of energy poverty and its convergence in 146 countries over the period 2002–2018. We measure a multidimensional energy poverty index (MEPI) based on 13 indicators classified into three energy dimensions (affordability, cleanability, and availability) through the Grey Relational Analysis and Sequential Relational Analysis. We further adopt a robust systematic model of convergence approach developed by Phillips and Sul (PS) to identify the con/divergent in energy poverty. We set an average MEPI of 33 developed countries of OECD as frontier countries and assess the catch-up effect in energy poverty across 113 developing countries. The results show that there is a considerable heterogeneity in energy poverty between developed and developing countries. However, developing countries experienced continuous improvement in energy poverty after 2008. Region-based results demonstrate that Africa, South Asia and Central Asia remained the energy poor among other regions. The results of PS test identify the formation of six clubs, indicating that six groups of countries are converging towards distinct steady states for energy poverty. The convergence speed for the developing countries for a whole sample was 0.575. Our results suggest that there is an urgent need for energy policy activities by solving the structural inconsistencies of the energy infrastructures across both developed and developing countries while addressing vulnerabilities such as race, gender, age, physical disability, socio-economic status, etc.