What is the state of the art in energy and transport poverty metrics? A critical and comprehensive review

This review investigates the state of the art in metrics used in energy (or fuel) and transport poverty with a view to assessing how these overlapping concepts may be unified in their measurement. Our review contributes to ongoing debates over decarbonisation, a politically sensitive and crucial aspect of the energy transition, and one that could exacerbate patterns of inequality or vulnerability. Up to 125 million people across the European Union experience the effects of energy poverty in their daily lives. A more comprehensive understanding of the breadth and depth of these conditions is therefore paramount. This review assessed 1,134 articles and critically analysed a deeper sample of 93. In terms of the use of metrics, we find that multiple indicators are better than any single metric or composite. We find work remains to be conducted in the transport poverty sphere before energy poverty metrics can be fully unified with those of transport poverty, namely the stipulation of travel standards. Without such standards, our ability to unify the metrics of both fields and potentially alleviate both conditions simultaneously is limited. The difficulties in defining necessary travel necessitate the further use of vulnerability lenses and holistic assessments focused on energy and transport services

Overseas-trained doctors in Indigenous rural health services: negotiating professional relationships across cultural domains

Objective: To examine how OTDs and staff in rural and remote Indigenous health contexts communicate and negotiate identity and relationships, and consider how this may influence OTDs' transition, integration and retention. Method: Ten case studies were conducted in rural and remote settings across Australia, each of an OTD providing primary care in a substantially Indigenous practice population, his/her partner, co-workers and Indigenous board members associated with the health service. Cases were purposefully sampled to ensure diversity in gender, location and country of origin. Results: Identity as 'fluid' emerged as a key theme in effective communication and building good relationships between OTDs and Indigenous staff. OTDs enter a social space where their own cultural and professional beliefs and practices intersect with the expectations of culturally safe practice shaped by the Australian Indigenous context. These are negotiated through differences in language, role expectation, practice, status and identification with locus with uncertain outcomes. Limited professional and cultural support often impeded this process. Conclusion: The reconstruction of OTDs' identities and mediating beyond predictable barriers to cultural engagement contributes significantly not only to OTDs' integration and, to a lesser extent, their retention, but also to maximising effective communication across cultural domains. Implications: Retention of OTDs working in Indigenous health contexts rests on a combination of OTDs' capacity to adapt culturally and professionally to this complex environment, and of effective strategies to support them

The potential for local bring-sites to reduce householder recycling mileage

Using a significant database of origin postcodes, a study was designed to estimate the current annual mileage associated with visitor trips to household waste recycling centers (HWRCs)—known as manned recycling drop-off centers in the United States—and to identify how this mileage could be reduced if a series of "bring sites" (unmanned recycling drop-off centers) in the community were enhanced to take green garden waste. The total annual distance driven by approximately 4,677,000 visitors to the 26 HWRCs in Hampshire, United Kingdom, is estimated to be 40 million kilometers (assuming that 60% of visitors made dedicated trips), costing approximately £14 million (£1 = $1.896 in April 2005 U.S. dollars) in private transport and emitting approximately 1,873 tonnes of CO2 (as carbon) into the atmosphere. Providing a network of 104 bring sites capable of accepting green waste, in addition to the existing facilities provided by the 26 HWRCs, could save approximately 8.5 million kilometers (21%) of vehicle travel per annum (£3 million in visitor transport costs and approximately 369 tonnes of CO2 as carbon). Such a scheme would require a fleet of approximately 78 refuse collection vehicles at an annual cost to the scheme provider of slightly more than £1.5 million. If HWRCs become a major channel for the return and reprocessing of waste electrical and electronic equipment and some newly classified hazardous waste items, space at existing sites could become an issue. More local consolidation of certain waste categories (e.g., green waste) would enable HWRCs to focus their activities better