Targeting parallel vulnerabilities first: Are energy poor communities in California experiencing greater heat-wave related health burdens? (Hoffmann, 2025)

To make the most of available budgets, policy makers could address communities facing cross-sectional vulnerabilities, such as high energy burdens and energy poverty. This paper looks at California to assess the relation of energy burden and public health burdens of heat waves. For this, bi-variate correlation, quintile assessment, and concentration curves with subsequent Gini indices are applied to census tract data.

The study finds about 7% of households living in energy poverty across California. Higher energy expenditure, energy burden and share of energy-poor households indicate a higher vulnerability to heat-related population loss, both considering and excluding heat wave exposure. While the urban heat island effect is frequently mentioned as a risk factor, this study finds a negative correlation between population density and population loss rates. Concentration curves show this study points out that 23.6% of California’s population facing the highest energy burdens carry about 50% of the public health burdens of heat waves.

Future research should therefore investigate policies that address energy burdens in communities prone to heat waves: This could potentially reduce energy poverty and health burdens simultaneously. This will become more relevant as the frequency of extreme heat events increases due to climate change.

Published in: Sustainable Cities and Society, Volume 131, 2025.

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