This article discusses Energy Justice and Climate Change.
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Write a 750-1,000-word policy brief that summarizes the issue, explains the effect on the population, and proposes a solution to the issue.
Solution
Energy Justice and Climate Change
Description
The reliability, safety, and affordability of energy sources should be equal for all people (Zhou & Noonan, 2019). The law needs to protect people from disproportionate cost-shares associated with establishing, running and maintaining power and energy generating, transmission, and distribution plants and systems. Inequalities in energy resource accessibility and share cost affect the health of the poor communities and populations in America. Political, economic, and environmental resource accessibility enables people to cope with climatic changes like natural hazards and extreme heat. Climate threats often harm the most vulnerable groups in the US population.
These people include people of color, women and children, people with severe health conditions, immigrants, outdoor workers, and marginalized groups (Bouzarovski, & Simcock, 2017). Accessibility difficulties to resources create a potentially enormous energy burden as the climatic conditions worsen. The US communities that lack an adequate supply of energy services mostly have poorer health. These communities often lack enough educational and economic opportunities, political representation, and limited health care access. Energy has become a health equity issue, and the environmental justice movement has a concern that environmental issues often affect people of color and more impoverished communities the most (American Public Health Association, n.d.). Energy justice and climate change is an issue that affects marginalized and underrepresented groups all over the United States, leading to poor outcomes and inequalities.
Problem Statement
The inability to supply every household with basic energy needs such as appliances, gas, heating, cooling, and connectivity affects 31% of the United States population, especially the people of color, marginalized communities, and immigrants (Reames, 2016). These communities enjoy energy resources less than the white majority and high-income earners but suffer the most from energy and environmental implications (Bednar, Reames, & Keoleian, 2017). Most households are struggling to meet costs for heating and cooling.
Some have to forego necessities like healthy food and medications to pay energy-related bills, especially in homes with vulnerable people such as young children and the elderly (Reames, Reiner, & Stacey, 2018). Consequently, some homes have unhealthy and unsafe temperature conditions as a result of high energy costs. Low-income earners are burdened three times more than other households (American Public Health Association, n.d.). The energy burden results from the unfair distribution of energy resources, disproportionate cost-sharing of energy impacts, and low household monthly income.
Addressing Energy Justice and Climate Change through Policy Change
There should be a fair distribution of energy benefits and burdens from production, distribution, and consumption. The government should enact policies that facilitate energy and climate justice. The first thing the federal, state governments and energy providers should do is work closely with communities to understand their needs, build their energy capacity, and engage them in planning and decision making to ensure equity (American Public Health Association, n.d.).
Secondly, the government and relevant stakeholders need to establish explicit connectivity between clean energy functions and instruments such as energy regulations, financial aid, education programs and information, government provision and distributive, procedural, and recognition energy justice (Hernández, 2016). Distributive energy justice is related to racial, political, social, and economic inequalities. Distributive justice advocates for equal distribution of risks and opportunities. Procedural justice advocates for effective and efficient decision making. Recognition justice calls for respect for all individuals and their opinions and views (Finley-Brook & Holloman, 2016). Attending to all these energy tenets would help inform policy and action.
The third step involves eliminating inequalities in major government-driven clean energy programs. Inequalities exist in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act smart-grid investment grant, smart-meter technology implementation, and government adoption of green energy programs (Zhou & Noonan, 2019). People of color and the Hispanic population are less likely to benefit adequately from these programs, especially the smart-meter roll-out. Federal and state governments and energy providers need to address these inequalities to make the programs more efficient.
The fourth intervention is to improve the government procurement policy to enhance distributive justice, ensuring energy-efficient homes. The policy change is a must to disseminate energy benefits and costs fairly (Hernández, 2015). All communities need to share the impacts and costs of environmental and climatic changes associated with establishing, running and maintaining energy plants and systems. Generation, transmission and distribution should ensure energy and climate justice.
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The government and energy providers need to engage more with the communities to eliminate misrepresentation and under-representation and facilitate impartial decision-making (Hernández, 2015). Energy justice involves developing resources to establish collective power to advance energy equity. The law and policy resources should advocate and pressure relevant stakeholders to address energy inequality and insecurity, reduce energy burden, and increase energy efficiency.
Impact of energy justice and climate change on health care delivery
Energy justice and climate change have adverse effects on the health care delivery system. Energy justice and climate change is a public health issue. The APHA is working to raise awareness to improve public health in conversations to establish a green and cleaner energy economy. Addressing energy justice from a public health perspective helps realize and understand the people’s adverse effects and why ensuring energy equity and shifting to clean and renewable energy is necessary to promote health (Hernández, & Siegel, 2019).
Health equity should be a priority in climate change solutions, including efficient energy production, distribution, and consumption (Rehr, 2020). Inadequate supply of heating and cooling instruments affect people’s health. Unhealthy and unsafe temperatures affect the less fortunate communities disproportionately. Extreme hot and cold conditions in different parts of the United States increase energy usage, increasing the energy burden. Inability to meet the burden impacts negatively on the residents’ health. The health care delivery system and public health professionals’ advocacy for energy and health justice strengthen climate change mitigation.
References
American Public Health Association. (n.d.). Energy Justice and Climate Change: Key Concepts for Public Health. Retrieved from https://www.apha.org/-/media/files/pdf/topics/climate/energy_justice_key_concepts.ashx?la=en&hash=410D83F29072CB046D88A0E0B82148A089A7FF6F
Bednar, D. J., Reames, T. G., & Keoleian, G. A. (2017). The intersection of energy and justice: Modeling the spatial, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic patterns of urban residential heating consumption and efficiency in Detroit, Michigan. Energy and Buildings, 143, 25-34.
Bouzarovski, S., & Simcock, N. (2017). Spatializing energy justice. Energy Policy, 107, 640-648.
Finley-Brook, M., & Holloman, E. L. (2016). Empowering energy justice. International journal of environmental research and public health, 13(9), 926.
Hernández, D. (2015). Sacrifice along the energy continuum: a call for energy justice. Environmental Justice, 8(4), 151-156.
Hernández, D. (2016). Understanding ‘energy insecurity and why it matters to health. Social science & medicine, 167, 1-10.
Hernández, D., & Siegel, E. (2019). Energy insecurity and its ill health effects: a community perspective on the energy-health nexus in New York City. Energy research & social science, 47, 78-83.
Jenkins, K., McCauley, D., & Forman, A. (2017). Energy justice: A policy approach. Energy Policy, 105, 631-634.
Reames, T. G. (2016). Targeting energy justice: Exploring spatial, racial/ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in urban residential heating energy efficiency. Energy Policy, 97, 549-558.
Reames, T. G., Reiner, M. A., & Stacey, M. B. (2018). An incandescent truth: Disparities in energy-efficient lighting availability and prices in an urban US county. Applied energy, 218, 95-103.
Rehr, R. (2020, July 30). Energy Justice: A Public Health Issue. Retrieved from https://climateforhealth.org/energy-justice-a-public-health-issue/
Zhou, S., & Noonan, D. S. (2019). Justice implications of clean energy policies and programs in the United States: A theoretical and empirical exploration. Sustainability, 11(3), 807.
Question
Research public health issues on the \”Climate Change\” or \”Topics and Issues\” pages of the American Public Health Association (APHA) website. Investigate a public health issue related to an environmental issue within the U.S. health care delivery system and examine its effect on a specific population.
Write a 750-1,000-word policy brief that summarizes the issue, explains the effect on the population, and proposes a solution to the issue.
Follow this outline when writing the policy brief:
- Describe the policy health issue. Include the following information: (a) what population is affected, (b) at what level does it occur (local, state, or national), and (c) evidence about the issues supported by resources.
- Create a problem statement.
- Provide suggestions for addressing the health issue caused by the current policy. Describe what steps are required to initiate policy change. Include necessary stakeholders (government officials, administrator) and budget or funding considerations, if applicable.
- Discuss the impact on the health care delivery system.
Include three peer-reviewed sources and two other sources to support the policy brief.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide,
