The decarbonisation policies for the EU building stock can improve living conditions, including thermal comfort and lower energy bills. However, these measures may impose financial burdens on low-income households, reducing their disposable income and exacerbating their vulnerability. The current study investigates the impact of decarbonisation policies on the EU’s building stock, with a specific focus on Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS), the new Emissions Trading System (ETS2) for buildings, and the phase-out of fossil heating systems. By employing a linear, static latest version of Microsoft Excel (Microsoft 365)-based model and analyzing Eurostat data, this study quantifies the effects of these policies on energy consumption, costs, and necessary investments. Moreover, the study emphasizes their implications for low-income groups using vulnerability indicators. The findings demonstrate that a combination of MEPs, ETS2, and phasing out fossil heating systems effectively reduces energy consumption and costs across most countries. However, implementing ETS2 alone may lead to energy reduction and discomfort for low-income groups without addressing underlying demand-side issues. To address this, this study recommends the implementation of more ambitious MEPs or the provision of additional funding alongside ETS2. The phase-out of fossil fuel boilers emerges as the most cost-effective measure in the medium to long term. While MEPS and the phase-out of fossil fuel boilers improve living conditions, they also impose upfront cost burdens and reduce disposable income for low-income households. Therefore, high subsidy rates and supportive policies are necessary to ensure equitable access to investments. The main recommendations include (a) shifting financing to renewable heating systems for low-income households by 2025, addressing cost issues and policies favouring gas boilers; (b) implementing high-funding rate subsidies for energy efficiency in low-income households before 2025, with technical guidance; (c) prioritising the Energy Efficiency First principle in planning to avoid additional emissions or higher costs for low-income households; and (d) considering the energy behaviour of low-income groups in regulations, employing a combination of policies to achieve desired outcomes and ensure thermal comfort.

Energy efficiency programmes (EEPs) are schemes operated by utilities or other bodies in order to incentivize energy efficiency improvement, in particular by adoption of energy-efficient products and typically by means of an economic reward. Ample experience has been gained, especially in the U.S., where EEPs have been in use for decades, with the rationale of avoiding additional energy supply by improving energy efficiency. More recently, EEPs have been implemented in Europe and in Switzerland. This review paper presents insights from the U.S., the EU and especially from Switzerland, with a focus on levelised programme cost of saved energy (LPC) as a key performance indicator. These LPC values, which take the perspective of the programme operator, are typically low to very low compared to the cost of electricity supply, thereby representing an important argument in favour of their use. The country examples show that EEPs are being effectively and successfully put into practice, for example, in Switzerland both as (i) a national tender-based scheme (called ProKilowatt) and in the form of a (ii) utility-operated obligation-based scheme (in Geneva). EEPs not only call for diligent implementation but also for suitable legal settings, e.g., in the form of mandatory energy efficiency savings targets (as realised for energy efficiency obligations, EEOs) in combination with programme cost recovery. The main criticism of EEPs is the free-rider effect, which needs to be minimised. On the other hand, EEPs are accompanied by significant co-benefits (environmental, health-related and social) and spillover effects. In their currently prevalent form, EEPs allow one to effectively save energy at a (very) low cost (“low-hanging fruit”). They can hence play an important role in fostering the energy transition; however, they should be implemented as part of a policy portfolio, in combination with other policy instruments.

This article examines Greek households’ energy and transport poverty and vulnerability, two concepts often intertwined in policy, making use of both single and composite indicators. The methodology employed aligns with the European Social Climate Fund regulation, using household income from economically active members and the share of expenditures on fossil-based energy use in buildings and transport, as well as the required investment costs in energy efficiency improvements for dwellings or transport decarbonization measures. Through these indicators, the proportion of energy-vulnerable households in Greece ranges from 19% to 40%, while transport vulnerability varies between 22% and 43%. Notably, the analysis reveals that households in higher income categories can still be highly vulnerable, depending on household size, composition and dependency, which impact energy and transport needs. As such, the research findings reveal that the current legislative frameworks may not fully capture the vulnerability of certain demographic groups in the event of additional costs of fossil fuels due to new climate policies. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that policymakers adjust criteria to better target vulnerable households based on their unique characteristics and needs, and use improved data collection systems to monitor energy and transport poverty and vulnerability.

Micro-enterprises represent major share of EU firms and account for almost 19.8% of EU value added, yet they remain invisible in energy statistics and energy efficiency policy evaluation. This invisibility is not only a matter of missing data but also a classification problem, since energy use is commonly allocated to household, commercial, or industrial sectors based on metering and contract arrangements rather than enterprise characteristics. As a result, micro-enterprise energy consumption is embedded in sectoral aggregates and cannot be consistently observed as a distinct analytical category. This paper examines how this statistical invisibility might affect the observability of micro-enterprises in energy efficiency policy design and evaluation. It combines a cross-country assessment of data availability across ten EU Member States with a Croatian case study based on a structured survey of 470 micro-enterprises. The survey investigates household-business overlap in workspace use, energy bills, and vehicle ownership. The cross-country review shows that core indicators needed for policy evaluation, including energy consumption, workspace or building use, transport activity, and size specific sectoral classification, are largely unavailable or only observable at aggregated levels. Financial information is available in some countries but remains weakly harmonised. Complementary sources can improve firm level coverage for economic variables but do not resolve the absence of micro-enterprise specific energy consumption data. The Croatian case study provides empirical evidence of extensive household and business overlap. 43% percent of respondents reported on shared household and business energy bills, and 64% report on shared vehicle use. These overlaps indicate that household energy statistics may overstate residential demand while business statistics may underestimate enterprises’ energy needs, with the strongest overlap among the smallest firms. The findings highlight the need to improve the statistical visibility of micro-enterprises and to explicitly account for mixed household and business energy use in both policy design and evaluation. This is particularly relevant for instruments targeting distributional impacts and vulnerability, including measures linked to the Social Climate Fund.