Genealogy of energy poverty and the right to energy

Rationality of calculation, epigram "development" and human rights

Abstract

From the genealogist’s point of view proposed by Foucault, this essay reconstructs the emergence, potentiality and limits of the notions of “energy poverty” and “right to energy”, which are at their peak in the field of human rights, one of the great contemporary regimes of truth. Both notions have been linked from the outset to a central idea since Hitler’s military defeat: “development”. The energy problem, then, is presented as part of the world agenda as the sustainable and then the sustainable are complementing the developments desired by the state commonwealth agglutinated in the United Nations Organization. At present, these notions allow us to think about the scope of the energy transition.