Developing countries face a crisis of deteriorating and unsafe human settlements conditions. Few studies examine the resources and energy required to provide everybody with decent housing. This study presents a generic methodology for the estimation of Life Cycle Energy (LCE) requirements to meet the housing gap and provide basic comfort to everybody in a developing country, based on standards of safety, durability and indoor temperature and humidity limits. The methodology includes the operationalization of this decent housing standard into materials and equipment; development of appropriate building archetypes; calculation of embodied and operating energy using a building simulation model; a parametric analysis to investigate the range of uncertainty in LCE and the attribution to different contextual conditions and energy savings measures. Results for the test case India showed that LCE of decent housing can significantly vary depending on climatic conditions, building typology, construction materials, technical equipment for space cooling dehumidification and user behaviour. Embodied energy accounts for 27-53% of the LCE, depending on the building type and climate. LCE savings of up to 44% can be achieved with low embodied energy materials, building envelope insulation, ceiling fans and more efficient air-conditioning systems. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.