Civil initiatives and social intermediation in energy efficiency in Hungary

Abstract

This study examines how Hungarian civil society organisations connect national policy frameworks on energy efficiency and energy poverty with household level decisions. The analysis combines the intermediary and middle actor perspectives of sustainability transition research with a multidimensional, vulnerability based and justice oriented interpretation of energy poverty. The research follows a theory driven embedded comparative case study design. Two documented civil programmes are placed in the social context described by Hungarian energy statistics and European energy poverty indicators: the energy awareness programme implemented by Energiaklub in Hatvan and the Falusi LakHatás renovation model of Habitat for Humanity Hungary. Programme documents were analysed through directed qualitative content analysis using a common coding framework. The results show that heating accounted for between 69.6 and 73.3 percent of final household energy use in the observed years. Energy poverty is concentrated among low income households living in detached houses and often using firewood. The two cases represent different but comple mentary forms of civil intermediation. Energiaklub primarily mediates knowledge, awareness and local recognition, while Habitat reduces financial, administrative and organisational barriers to support access. The original contribution of the study is a three function framework of civil energy poverty intermediation, distinguishing knowledge and awareness intermediation, access and procedure intermediation, and trust and recognition intermediation. The framework demonstrates that civil society organisations are not peripheral actors in the energy transition but form part of the social infrastructure linking policy to vulnerable households.