In climate-vulnerable New Orleans, residents face battle to lower carbon emissions

Amid the heat and humidity, energy bills in New Orleans are surging - but the options for low-income residents are severely limited

Darlene Jones spends most of her time holed up in the bedroom to minimize the amount of electricity she uses to cool and light her home in downtown New Orleans.

Air seeps out from the doors and windows of the 1890 one-bedroom shotgun house - and through the bashed-up floorboards and ceiling that Jones cannot afford to repair. She has wrapped foam around the leaky air-conditioning pipes, and taped handwritten signs on the front door above the metal letterbox that read Please close the slot".