The experience of energy poverty among young adults living in subdivided units in Hong Kong: Evidence from a phenomenological study

Energy poverty, or the inability to purchase or access enough household energy to achieve required domestic energy services, including maintaining healthy indoor temperatures, is increasingly recognized as a determinant of environmental health straddling multiple policy domains. Housing and energy poverty are closely linked by shared key drivers, and contribute significantly to growing global health problems against the backdrop of a rapidly changing and warming global climate.While there has been a divide in the scholarly exploration of energy poverty and housing studies along the economic boundaries of the Global North and the Global South, more recent studies have drawn comparisons between more developed cities in the economically varied geographic region of the Asia Pacific. Study of energy poverty in Asia in the context of cities with more developed economic profiles has been limited, but is now growing, with energy poverty in Japan, China, and more recently, Hong Kong increasingly examined. Hong Kong in particular has a history of scarcity and unaffordability in the housing market, which has led to many young adults now limited to living in Subdivided Units (SDUs) in the private rental market. Here we report on an exploratory phenomenological study that investigated the experiences and health and wellbeing impacts of energy poverty on young adults living in Subdivided Units in Hong Kong. First we outline the current evidence that energy poverty is experienced in Hong Kong. We then describe the method and results of our phenomenological study, with the key finding that energy poverty among young adults living in subdivided units is largely landlord-mediated. We relate our results to the broader literature on energy poverty, and make initial recommendations for policy and further research to measure and address energy poverty in Hong Kong.