Climate change mitigation measures linked to households’ energy consumption have huge greenhouse gases (GHG) emission reduction potential and positive impact on energy poverty reduction. However, measures such as renovation of residential buildings or installation of micro generation technologies based on renewable energy sources have not realized their full energy saving and GHG emission reduction potentials, due to the energy efficiency paradox and other barriers. These climate change mitigation policies targeting the households’ sector can deliver extra benefits such as energy poverty reduction and implementation of the energy justice principle; therefore, they require more attention of scholars and policy makers. The aim of this paper is to analyze the energy poverty and climate change mitigation issues in EU households based on a systematic literature review, and to provide future research paths and policy recommendations. Based on the systematic literature review, this paper develops an integrated framework for addressing energy poverty, just carbon free energy transition and climate change mitigation issues in the EU. Additionally, we argue that more targeted climate change policies and measures are necessary in the light of the shortcomings of current measures to reduce energy poverty and realize climate change mitigation potential linked to energy consumption in households.

Various methods and tools have been developed to quantify energy supply security; however, there is no ideal framework to measure energy security, as the concept is multifaceted and context dependent. Energy supply security has always been an extremely important issue for European Union (EU) countries due to high import dependency, and recent events linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have made it exceptionally important to reconsider this problem to identify the crucial issues and address contemporary policy needs. This study endeavours to systematise the primary energy security indicators in terms of policy relevance and develop an energy security assessment framework to examine energy import dependency and diversification for the EU in view of recent problems. This study introduces an energy import diversification and security index which enables measurement of a country’s energy security level for comparison with other countries and identifies primary areas for improvement. The proposed framework is then applied to a case study of selected EU countries to examine regional differences and identify potential improvements.

Although renewable energy adoption in the residential sector has increased significantly in the EU due to the governmental policies, aiming to reduce the barriers of renewable energy penetration, the full potential of renewable energy deployment in households is still not realized due to the behavioral and other barriers. One of the most important factors in the adoption of renewable energy technologies in households is the decision-making to implement renewables; therefore, the behavioral economics insights should be taken into account during the analysis of renewable energy acceptance by households. The paper provides a systematic literature review on renewable energy use in households by analyzing policies and measures, which could increase the use of renewable energy in households by overcoming the major barriers. The dynamics of renewable energy consumption in EU households was performed by applying Eurostat data, and the empirical case study was conducted in Lithuania to understand the main reasons of renewable energy acceptance by the household. Even though the use of renewable energy sources has increased significantly in the EU member states during the recent years, the study has found the following most common barriers that the traditional policies are unable to overcome: (1) high upfront cost and long pay-back period, (2) a lack of information and knowledge, (3) low priority of environmental concern, (4) resistance to change; human habits. The case study shows that the majority of Lithuanian households would like to use renewable energy technologies in their homes, but they encounter financial difficulties and lack of infrastructure. The policy recommendations were developed based on the results of the conducted study.