This article examines energy audit procedures as a crucial instrument for raising building and business energy efficiency in European Union (EU) Member States. Energy audits, which include technical, economic, and environmental aspects, are essential to reaching the EU’s climate targets, which include increasing energy independence and cutting emissions by 55% by 2030. The study highlights how crucial energy efficiency initiatives are to combating climate change, cutting energy use, and advancing sustainable development. A thorough examination of methods, financing sources, and legislative frameworks reveals differences in how Member States carry out directives such as the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive. A case study on Latvia is included in the article, highlighting the country’s energy audit regulations, implementation difficulties, and successes. This study applied a bibliographic methodology or review of the scientific and other relevant literature, analyzing sources identified through targeted keyword searches in academic databases and a variety of online sources, including official legal websites, handbooks, reports, plans, and other publicly available digital resources. The integration of energy efficiency principles and country performances are compared using data from the Odyssee and Mure databases. The results highlight how important it is to standardize energy auditing practices, promote information sharing across national borders, and move past obstacles like public resistance and budgetary limitations. Policy recommendations to improve energy efficiency and aid the EU’s transition to climate neutrality by 2050 are included in the research’s conclusion.

This research combines the analysis of international knowledge in energy audit practices with information on the nature of energy audit and its involved parties on the path to fulfil the goals set by the European Union policy and Latvian national policy. The article also analyses the publicly available information about the energy sector in Latvia, industry statistics, and legislative acts that have a direct impact on the implementation of energy audits. Although the European Union aims to reduce EU emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and to reduce gas demand by 15% by May 2023, sustainable energy use requires not only increased renewable energy production but also an efficient and competent use of this energy. The article first assesses the institutional basis, by EU regulations, to promote energy audits in the country. International energy audit and energy efficiency practices are also reviewed, focusing on government policy, energy audit standards, tools and methods. As each member state of the European Union has independently interpreted and adapted the EU requirements related to energy efficiency, especially the Directive of the European Parliament and of Council no. 2018/844, which amends Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy efficiency of buildings and Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency, points 6 and 9, then the exchange of information between member states on their knowledge and experience should be considered an essential aspect of the policy, so that in the future countries together could achieve European energy security, independence, competitiveness and sustainability by adopting the best examples there are. The result achieved in the research is a summary of the energy audit experience of the EU and other countries, a description of energy consumption and their prices in Europe, as well as an extract of the most important regulatory acts.

Latvia’s waste management sector generates annually increasing waste volume, more than doubling to 2.71 Mt in 2023 from 1.26 Mt in 2004. The current national policy aims to address this challenge to reduce waste generation and landfilling by promoting circular economy principles. The long-term strategy is focused on achieving climate neutrality in 2050 with a 58% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 2017 levels. This study performed a comprehensive analysis of European Directives, National Policy Plans, Regulations, and IPCC reports for the waste management sector. Relevant data has been systematically extracted from these documents and analyzed. In this study, a System Dynamics approach has been used to capture complex interactions within the waste management sector. The System Dynamics model has been developed to assess and evaluate the current state of Latvia’s waste management sector and incorporate various policies. The model has been validated on historically available data and structural analysis. Policies regarding ways to minimize waste generation, greenhouse gas emissions and their associated effects on socioeconomics have been analyzed using the model. An interactive decision-making interface has been developed on top of the model to be used by stakeholders for various scenario analyses. The interface allows users to analyze Business-as-Usual (BAU), optimistic, worst-case scenario, and custom scenarios by providing own inputs and policy mix. Two stakeholder workshops have been performed where waste management experts and policymakers performed scenario assessments using the developed interface. Discussions with the stakeholders during the workshops have shown trust and support for the model, and they report that it is beneficial to incorporate the model into the national policy analysis and planning.