Energy and resource efficiency

The Central and Eastern European (CEE) region faces significant challenges in meeting the building energy efficiency goals set by the European Union. Despite considerable efforts to renovate the region's building stock, deep energy savings remain limited, and renovation projects often underperform relative to expectations. With the built environment contributing nearly 40% of the EU’s emissions, and the continued fossil fuel dependence of CEE countries, improving building energy efficiency through renovation is an essential action for reaching the EU’s climate goals. The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) establishes a framework for improving building energy performance, including standardised calculation methodologies, minimum renovation requirements, and Energy Performance Certificates. In alignment with the European Green Deal, the “Renovation Wave for Europe” aims to double the energy renovation rate by 2030, serving as a crucial step toward achieving the EU’s decarbonisation targets by 2050. The most recent revision of the EPBD, adopted in 2024, increases the ambition of building-related energy efficiency improvements, with particularly ambitious standards and goals for public buildings. Considering the EU's energy efficiency targets, CEE countries face unique challenges, including an ageing building stock, dependence on fossil fuels, and inadequate insulation standards. Decarbonisation efforts are inconsistent across the region, often dependent on government initiatives and varying levels of climate action, and renovation rates reflect a sluggish pace of climate action. In particular, a lack of monitoring of the actual impact of implemented renovations leads to potential delays in achieving renovation goals and an inefficient use of public funding, often used to finance building renovations. To overcome these issues, meet energy efficiency targets and transform its building stock, the CEE region must learn from past experiences and best practices while strengthening policy and implementation frameworks for building renovation. This report shows that many renovation efforts underperform due to common barriers such as poor monitoring and data availability, limited financing, inadequate regulation, and a lack of technical expertise. The OUR-CEE project aims to shed light on the gap between planned and actual energy performance in renovated public buildings and recommends key strategies to mitigate underperformance. The main goal of this report, part of the OUR-CEE project, is to identify the primary barriers and underlying factors contributing to the low performance of building renovations across the CEE region. It provides an in-depth analysis of the status of the building stock in four CEE countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, and Romania), highlights common challenges, and offers recommendations to advance policy reforms, enhance financial instruments, and foster innovative solutions to accelerate sustainable and energy-efficient renovations. By implementing these strategies, the CEE region could make significant strides toward overcoming underperforming renovations, thus progressing against its climate goals, while maximising ancillary benefits such as socio-economic development and public health. OUR-CEE (Overcoming Underperforming Renovations in Central and Eastern Europe) is part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The opinions put forward in this study are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). Luciana Miu, EPG Head of Clean Economy Luciana Miu is the Head of Clean Economy at Energy Policy Group. She holds a Master’s degree in Sustainable Energy Systems from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Energy Efficiency of Residential Buildings from the Imperial College London. Before joining EPG, Luciana worked for the UK Parliament and for the British Government’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), as well as a consultant for Climate-KIC and London City Hall. She is passionate about volunteer work, being one of the founding members of European Youth Energy Network and a professional speaker for conferences dedicated to the role of youth in energy transition. Contact: luciana.miu@enpg.ro

The renovation of the building stock is one of the key target sectors for energy and CO2 reduction at the EU level. Despite policy efforts, the wide range of regulatory measures, financial instruments, and initiatives that have resulted in notable technical improvements to the building stock, the energy consumption, in both public and residential sectors, has not yet experienced the dramatic reduction necessary to achieve set targets. One of the cornerstone policies aimed at reducing the energy consumption of the building stock, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), introduced the requirement for Member States to establish certification (energy performance certificates) and energy labeling schemes for existing buildings to indicate their energy performance, as well as a common framework for the calculation of buildings' energy performance. In Romania, the Long Term Renovation Strategy is the main document aiming to transform the national building stock to meet energy efficiency standards by outlining specific actions and targets for both public and residential buildings. It introduces the cost-optimal renovation packages to ensure economical viability of energy efficiency renovation measures, for all types of public buildings, educational, healthcare, administrative, commercial buildings, all of which would be able to achieve deep renovation standards. The performance of the building stock in Romania has been steadily, albeit slowly, improving, and some progress has been made in achieving renovation targets. However, there are significant challenges for the Romanian renovation sector to achieve the energy savings potential. Although the Romanian policy landscape and legal frameworks have established specific standards and measures for energy performance in the renovation sector, achieving these standards has encountered various barriers, related to national energy performance calculation methodologies, knowledge gaps about the national building stock, monitoring and evaluation practices, and certification processes, poor management and use of buildings post renovation. To overcome these barriers and accelerate the rate and quality of the energy efficiency renovations, it is essential to improve the national building stock knowledge base, establish robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks to ensure that energy performance targets are met and that the actual energy savings align with predicted outcomes, enhance the administrative capacity at both national and local levels. Finally, increasing awareness and knowledge about energy efficiency among building occupants will help mitigate issues related to occupant behavior that impact energy consumption. OUR-CEE (Overcoming Underperforming Renovations in Central and Eastern Europe) is part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The opinions put forward in this study are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). Luciana Miu, EPG Head of Clean Economy Luciana Miu is the Head of Clean Economy at Energy Policy Group. She holds a Master’s degree in Sustainable Energy Systems from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Energy Efficiency of Residential Buildings from the Imperial College London. Before joining EPG, Luciana worked for the UK Parliament and for the British Government’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), as well as a consultant for Climate-KIC and London City Hall. Contact: luciana.miu@enpg.ro

Spre deosebire de emisiile operaționale de carbon, care țin de consumul de energie în clădire și care fac obiectul măsurilor de creștere a eficienței energetice, emisiile încorporate ale clădirii sunt cele care țin de materialele de construcții și de activitățile de construcție, precum și de tratamentul la finalul duratei de utilizare. De aceea, contribuția sectorului clădirilor – care, în UE, reprezintă mai bine de 40% din consumul total final de energie – la realizarea unei traiectorii de neutralitate climatică până în 2050 nu poate fi realizată fără controlul și reducerea emisiilor încorporate de carbon.

This report has been prepared by Energy Policy Group (EPG) Romania with collaboration and sponsorship from Clean Air Task Force (CATF). This report received no financial support from the government, industry and private sector and it was prepared based on publicly available data, information, articles and scientific publications. Radu Dudău, EPG President Radu Dudău is President and co-founder of EPG. He was, from 2007 to 2023, an Associate Professor at the Bucharest University. From 2006 to 2010 he was Deputy Director at the Romanian Diplomatic Institute (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). He graduated in Physics and Philosophy from the University of Iași. He holds a Dr. Phil. degree in Philosophy (magna cum laude) from Konstanz University (Germany) and a PhD in Political Science (International Relations) (summa cum laude) from the National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA, Bucharest). He was a Fulbright Fellow with the National Security Program at Harvard Kennedy School of Government (2011), a New Europe College Fellow at the Danish Institute of International Relations (Copenhagen, 2006) and an OSI/FCO-Chevening scholar at Oxford University (1999-2000). His work focuses on energy policy, energy technology, and energy markets. Contact: radu.dudau@enpg.ro

Currently, Romania does not have a comprehensive climate policy framework and relies mostly on transposed EU legislation to formulate targets and plans. Institutional responsibilities on climate change tend to be scattered, with insufficient coordination, weak accountability mechanisms, and a lack of long-term planning based on scientific evidence.

From the second half of March to June 2023, four rounds of revisions have been submitted for the Electricity Market Design during the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU, bringing useful clarifications. The present analysis also reflects the main elements of the Presidency’s compromise proposal.

The concept of circular economy (CE) has become one of the most important pillars of climate change mitigation efforts as its implementation seeks to decouple economic growth from resource use.

Trebuie reamintit că actuala criză este una a penuriei de energie, parțial cauzată de agresiunea neașteptată și brutală a Rusiei asupra Ucrainei, cu declanșarea unui conflict energetic între Moscova și Uniunea Europeană, dar și de anii îndelungați în care nu s-au realizat investiții în producerea de energie.

In this report, EPG analyzes the EU Taxonomy, a classification tool for sustainable economic activities, and its impact on Romania’s energy sector. The EU Taxonomy was meant to become the ultimate manual for financial institution to label their products as “sustainable”.

Invazia cu totul iresponsabilă a Ucrainei de către Federația Rusă a declanșat în Europa un efort masiv de reducere a dependenței de importurile de gaze naturale rusești. Acesta devine o mișcare către independența energetică și un viitor prietenos cu mediul, în care pot participa toți cetățenii, adesea descumpăniți de incapacitatea de a contribui la rezolvarea greoaielor probleme geopolitice și climatice cu care se confruntă societatea.

The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) is an essential instrument for achieving the energy and climate objectives of the European Union (EU). The recast EED aims to align its provisions – since many of them require increased ambition and enhancement of their scope – with the target of 55% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030.

In the European Union’s pathway to climate neutrality, decarbonised molecules such as hydrogen will contribute to eliminating ‘stubborn emissions’ in hard-to-abate sectors – e.g., high-temperature heat and feedstock in industry, aviation and long-haul shipping, and potentially large-scale district heating and long-term electricity storage.

Creșterile fără precedent ale prețurilor energiei din ultimele luni au generat discuții aprinse despre cauze, designul pieței de energie electrică, prețul carbonului și dependența de importurile de gaze naturale. Răspunsul formulat până acum de legiuitori pentru rezolvarea acestor probleme (în principal, plafonări de prețuri și subvenții) nu oferă decât soluții de avarie, de termen scurt, care nu rezolvă disfuncționalitățile structurale ce pot duce la repetarea unor astfel de situații.

Although sanctioned in the press as a populist and anti-economic measure, the draft law on deferral of payment to utilities for three months, is based on a correct idea of social protection.

The post COVID-19 economic recovery represents a unique opportunity for setting Romania on a path of sustainable economic growth and for ensuring its competitiveness in a future decarbonised EU economy.

How could Romania capitalize on such consistent evidence about how energy efficiency can actually work to the benefit of a state and its energy stakeholders?

This article is part of a series of three called Energy Poverty Today, presenting in a nutshell the main concepts and challenges of energy poverty.

In Romania, the National Energy Regulation Agency (ANRE) has so far approved 36 SM pilot projects in 2015 and 2016 for all eight distribution areas, targeting approximately 270.000 points of delivery out of a total of 7.18 million, which means less than 4% of the population.

Romania´s petroleum tax regime is under review, with lingering uncertainty about its future design. The article discusses strategic considerations of this review, in light of the country expected (but equally unclear and overdue) long-term energy strategy.