Energy affordability

Rising energy costs and the impact of climate change hit the most vulnerable in our community hardest.

Not surprisingly, people are reporting increased anxiety over the costs of living and job insecurity, as well as higher levels of financial hardship.

Rising energy costs add to this stress.

Energy affordability is strongly linked to policy responses to climate change.

Climate change will mean more extreme weather events. Such weather events will hit low-income households hardest as they have limited resources to bounce back from the impacts to their lives, such as property damage, loss of homes and even loss of life.

How does BSL help?

BSL works to ensure low-income households and communities can benefit from lower energy costs, and be part of the solution to climate change. We develop policy, undertake research and run pilots to test innovative new ideas.

Examples include:

• Working with government and corporate partners to develop models to ensure low-income and energy-stressed households have efficient homes that are warm in winter and cool in summer. We delivered Your Energy Broker , a program of BSL and the Victorian Government to help eligible households find their best energy deal.
• Creating solutions. We are forging a pathway to zero-carbon energy with certainty in climate change and energy policy. In tandem with this, we are securing lower network prices, reforming retail markets to protect vulnerable people, and promoting access to energy-efficiency measures and renewable energy.
• Creating initiatives that improve the efficiency of homes and making them healthier to live in, and cheaper to run. Our Powering Healthier Homes project is an example of our work where we support low-income households suffering from chronic health challenges through energy efficiency upgrades to their homes, to protect them from the effects of extreme weather such as heatwaves.
• Conducting research that informs our equity and climate change advocacy . These efforts include a fair, timely transition to net-zero emissions, while supporting adaptation to the unavoidable impacts such as an increase in heatwaves.