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Energy poverty is a global phenomenon, but its prevalence is enormous in most African countries, with a potential impact on quality of life. This study aims to investigate the impact of energy poverty on the shadow economy.

The study uses panel data from 45 countries in Africa over a period of 1996–2018. Using panel cointegrating regression and panel vector auto-regression model in the generalized method of moments technique.

This study provides that energy poverty deepens the size of the shadow economy in Africa. It also documents that there is a bidirectional causality between shadow economy and energy poverty. Therefore, the two variables can predict each other.

The study suggests that lack of access to clean and modern energy services contributes to the depth of the shadow economy in Africa. African authorities are advised to strengthen rural and urban electrification initiatives by providing adequate energy infrastructure so as to reduce the level of energy poverty in the region. To ensure energy sustainability delivery, the study proposes that the creation of national and local capacities would be the most effective manner to guarantee energy accessibility and affordability. Also, priorities should be given to the local capital mobilization and energy subsidies for the energy poor. Energy literacy may also contribute to the sustainability and the usage of modern energy sources in Africa.

Previous studies reveal that income inequality contributes to the large size of shadow economy in developing economies. However, none of these studies analyzed the role of energy poverty and its implications for underground economic operations. Inadequate access to modern energy sources is likely to deepen the prevalence of informality in developing nations. Based on this, this study provides fresh evidence on the implications of energy deprivation on the shadow economy in Africa using a heterogeneous panel econometric framework. The study contributes to the literature by advocating that the provision of affordable modern energy sources for rural and urban settlements, and the creation of good energy infrastructure for the firms in the formal economy would not only improve the quality of life but also important to discourage underground economic operations in developing economies.

Nanotechnology's rapid development worldwide is a significant measure for countries to strengthen the building of energy security. Thus, to empirically investigate the underlying effect of nanotechnology on energy poverty alleviation, the authors of this study assess the impact of nanotechnology on alleviating energy poverty in developing countries.

The paper used panel data for 56 developing countries over the period 2012–2019, by employing dynamic generalised method of moments (GMM) analysis.

The findings showed that the emergence of nanotechnology has a significant trend in increasing energy poverty in developing countries. This suggests that whilst nanotechnology may be a promising solution for addressing energy poverty in certain contexts, nanotechnology may not be the most viable option for reducing poverty in developing countries. The findings have added credence as the findings are robust to the inclusion of alternative energy poverty measures and additional controlled variables.

Although this study results show unpromising outcomes in addressing energy poverty in developing countries, the authors believe that this may be a short-term phenomenon. In the long run, policies and programs must be put in place to support the development and deployment of nanotechnology to reduce energy poverty.

The authors believe this is the first attempt to examine the dynamic influence of nanotechnology development on energy poverty in developing countries. From the standpoint of nanotechnology development, this can help policymakers develop rules and regulations to tackle energy poverty.

People with energy poverty are denied the modern energy services such as cooking, lighting, heating, cooling and communication. These needs are all crucial to maintaining an acceptable level of living standards. This paper aims to examine the effects of energy poverty on health and education.

This systematic review was conducted using the 2009 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The ScienceDirect, Scopus and Google Scholar databases were used to search the studies conducted between 2012 and 2022. Studies included in this review were searched with some combinations of keywords and saved in Mendeley Desktop for review and referencing. Of 1,745 articles retrieved after removing the duplicates from the databases, 22 met the inclusion criteria.

Out of the total 22 studies reviewed, six were conducted in Asia, six in Europe, four in Africa, three in developing countries and one each in North America, Australia and at global level. Results indicated that impacts of energy poverty on health and education were negative. Efforts should be made to improve the economic conditions of the population in order to allow them access to energy services to achieve higher levels of living.

As this systematic review excludes non-peer-reviewed literature, case studies, reports and theses, and only includes studies published between 2012 and 2022 in English language only, consequently, it may not provide an exhaustive overview of the literature on topic.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review to investigate the relationship between energy poverty, health and education conducted here. The search methodologies involve systematic searches of databases and other manual searches. Considering the wide inclusion criteria, this review is useful as a general overview of the issues and identifies particular gaps in the existing evidence.

The purpose of this paper is to present advances towards a social intrapreneurship department within energy corporations. By drawing on the literature on social intrapreneurship and stakeholder theory, this paper provides a conceptual proposal for an organisational structure. This paper builds on the notion of bridging and boundary organisations, to suggest an organisational innovative structure as a social intrapreneurship endeavour focussing on the increasing salience of weak stakeholders in energy corporations from the energy justice approach.

This paper draws on the literatures on social intrapreneurship and stakeholder theory, to provide arguments and an organisational proposal to alleviate energy poverty in energy corporations.

The results are presented in a conceptual process model for the development of Social Energy Department units within large energy companies, illustrating their embeddedness in both societal and company-level processes to facilitate social intrapreneurship initiatives that would alleviate energy poverty in the just transition.

The paper promises novel insights at the nexus of social enterprise and organisational change. The practical applicability is particularly promising, as it focusses on integrating novel units in energy companies and stimulates further research on models of social intrapreneurship to tackle energy poverty.

The paper offers both practical and theoretical contributions to the stakeholder theory field with insights from social intrapreneurship and organisational stakeholder theory in the context of a specific social problem – energy poverty, energy justice and the just energy transition.

Driven by the Sustainable Development Goals (goals 7, 8, 12 and 13), this study investigates the moderating role of financial development in the link between energy poverty and a sustainable environment in African nations.

Panel cointegration analysis, fully modified least squares, Driscoll and Kraay least squares and method of moments quantile regression were used as estimation techniques to examine the link between financial development, energy poverty and sustainable environment for 28 African nations. Energy poverty is measured using two proxies-access to clean energy and access to electricity, while the environment is gauged using ecological footprint.

The regression outcomes show that access to clean energy and electricity negatively impacts the ecological footprint across all the quantiles; hence, energy poverty increases environmental degradation. Financial development positively influences environmental degradation in the region at the upper quantiles. Similarly, the interactive term of energy poverty and financial development has a significant positive impact on ecological footprint; thus, the financial sector adds to energy poverty and environmental degradation. The results of other variables hint that per capita income and institutions worsen environmental quality while urbanisation strengthens the environment.

This study offers fresh insights into the moderating effect of financial development in the link between energy poverty and sustainable environment in African countries.