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.

Micro-enterprises are vital to the European economy, including in Croatia, where they make over 88% of the total number of businesses. Despite their significance, they face substantial energy vulnerability due to factors like small size, limited financial resources, and high energy costs. This paper investigates the determinants of energy vulnerability among Croatian micro-enterprises, employing a survey of 470 micro-enterprises. The study covers firms across all Croatian NUTS2 regions and ensures geographic and sectoral representativeness. Key findings reveal that enterprises with higher energy expenditures relative to revenue are most susceptible to energy vulnerability, which is aligned with our assumption. On the other hand, businesses that own their premises, have more employees, and have been operational longer are more likely to invest in energy efficiency measures, thereby reducing vulnerability. Notably, a significant proportion of micro-enterprises report that energy costs adversely affect their household finances, highlighting the nature of business and personal economic stability. The paper underscores the need for targeted policies and support mechanisms to enhance the energy-related resilience of micro-enterprises, considering their unique structural and financial constraints.

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.

The proclaimed goal of European energy policies is a just and sustainable energy transition. While extensive research has focused on energy transition and efficiency, micro-enterprises, a critical segment of the European economy, remain underexplored. Micro-enterprises account for 93.7% of EU companies and nearly 17% of total EU turnover. They are also a contributing factor to welfare, where entire families rely on the stability of a single micro-enterprise. Due to their size and supply chain positioning, they are disproportionately vulnerable to energy price fluctuations, supply disruptions and regulatory changes. We investigate the energy vulnerability of micro-enterprises in the EU, highlighting their unique challenges in energy transition policies, financial constraints, and market dynamics. A composite vulnerability index (MEVI) is developed, integrating factors like energy dependency, market access and business vulnerabilities, to rank EU Member States based on their micro-enterprise energy vulnerability. The findings suggest variations in vulnerability across countries, influenced by energy market structure, macroeconomic conditions or sector-specific energy needs. The research underscores the necessity for tailored policies and further data collection to better address the energy vulnerability of micro-enterprises, a sector often overlooked in energy policies.

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.

Peer-reviewed paper 3-102-26 Investment in energy efficiency and deep renovation of buildings in the European Union continues to be constrained by limited access to financing. Although Member States have introduced a range of support schemes and financial institutions have expanded offer of renovation-related products, financing arrangements remain fragmented and insufficient. This paper presents a comparative analysis of financing instruments for building energy efficiency and deep renovation in Greece, Cyprus, and Croatia, using a common methodological framework. The analysis covers public financing schemes, including grants, subsidies, and tax incentives, alongside private and market-based instruments such as loans, green mortgages, energy performance contracting, and equity-related mechanisms. Particular attention is given to their structure, targeting, and combination in practice, including the use of hybrid public–private financing schemes. The findings indicate that financing instruments are largely implemented in isolation, with limited coordination between public support and private finance. Based on the mapping results, the paper examines crowdfunding as a complementary financing option within renovation financing frameworks. Different crowdfunding business models are analysed, including donation-based, reward-based, lending-based, and equity-based approaches, with respect to their potential application to building renovation. The analysis assesses how these models differ in terms of capital mobilisation, risk allocation, investor involvement, and compatibility with public support schemes and conventional bank finance. The paper concludes by discussing the conditions under which crowdfunding models may be integrated into hybrid financing schemes for building energy renovation and the limitations and regulatory considerations associated with their use.