The paper deals with the exposition of the main barriers and drivers of renewable energy usage in rural communities. Climate change mitigation is causing governments, policymakers, and international organizations worldwide to embark on policies, leading to increased use of renewable energy sources and improvement of energy efficiency. Climate change mitigation actions, including the Green Deal strategy in the EU, require satisfying the expanding energy demand and complying with the environmental restrictions. At the same time, the prevailing market structure and infrastructure relevant to the energy systems are undergoing a crucial transformation. Specifically, there has been a shift from centralized to more decentralized and interactive energy systems that are accompanied by a low-carbon energy transition. Smart Grid technology and other innovations in the area of renewable energy microgeneration technologies have enabled changes in terms of the roles of energy users: they can act as prosumers that are producing and consuming energy at the same time. Renewable energy generation that is allowing for deeper involvement of the citizens may render higher social acceptance, which, in turn, fuels the low-carbon energy transition. The collective energy prosumption in the form of energy cooperatives has become a widespread form of renewable energy initiatives in rural communities. Even though renewable energy consumption provides a lot of benefits and opportunities for rural communities, the fast penetration of renewables and energy prosumption encounter several important barriers in the rural areas. This paper analyses the main barriers and drivers of renewable energy initiatives in rural areas and provides policy implications for the low-carbon energy transition in rural areas.

This study presents an innovative approach to measuring economic resilience at a sectoral level. The notion of economic resilience is explored through the lens of levels of resilience of the main functions of a researched economic sector. The overall level of sectoral economic resilience is seen as a weighted sum of resilience indexes related to its main economic functions. Such a comprehensive approach is universal, as it allows to measure economic resilience of various economic sectors. For the empirical application, the agricultural sector of Lithuania was selected for analysis of resilience. The results revealed that the overall level of resilience declined in Lithuanian agricultural sector during 2012–2019. Such a persistent trend may pose an increasing risk for food security in Lithuania in the future. The most evident negative changes in the economic resilience levels are observed in terms of economic viability of farms. The most robust levels of economic resilience are indicated in the sense of ability to provide local food at affordable prices.

Purpose: The present paper aims to reveal how different cultures, as reflected by cultural norms, traditions, and social expectations, influence food waste behaviour in different regions of the world.Design/methodology/approach: A systematic multifaceted literature review was employed as a main research tool.Findings: The focal role of education and awareness campaigns in reducing household food waste and promoting responsible food consumption behaviours is revealed. The importance of guilt, behavioural control, negative attitudes towards leftovers, and social norms are among the most important factors predicting intentions to reduce food waste. Cultural beliefs significantly shape food attitudes and waste. Tailoring sustainable practices to traditions helps to ensure food security. Embracing cultural diversity can lead to the development of effective and sustainable food consumption patterns across different parts of the world.Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper fully devoted to revealing how different cultural backgrounds shape food consumption habits and which marketing strategies aiming to nudge positive changes in responsible food consumption are preferred in different cultural contexts.

Ensuring sustainable and economically viable agriculture requires economic resilience before, throughout, and after a shock. This paper studies the economic resilience of Austrian agriculture within the period of 1995 to 2019. However, methods for tracking changes in economic resilience have so far seen only limited application in agriculture. The index for the analysis and measurement of economic resilience is based on four areas: financial flexibility, stability in following the development path, diversification of activities, and diversification of export markets. As results show, Austrian agriculture is of interest because of the very high level of economic resilience, ranging from 0.83 to 0.92 in the period researched, thereby displaying a high capacity to absorb shocks. Generally, these results indicate that Austrian agriculture is forgiving of shocks and thus very economically resilient. These results provide context for developing generalizations on economic resilience in agriculture and its fundamental function for producing effective food security within a sustainable transition path. Some concluding suggestions propose possible future areas of research.

• Gender-wise differences in the perceptions of young farmers. • The measures of the Common Agricultural Policy. • Development of farms and the use of advisory services. • The results show gender equality in Lithuanian agriculture.

This study presents an innovative approach to measuring the impact of EU CAP direct payments on the economic resilience of agriculture at a sectoral level. The construct of resilience is approached from the perspective of the resilience of the main functions of the sector. The overall level of direct payments impact on sectoral economic resilience is seen as a weighted sum of the payments’ impact on the resilience of the main economic functions of the sector. Such an approach, allowing for a comprehensive estimate of subsidy impact on the most essential areas of agriculture, is universal and can be adapted to measure economic resilience of other economic sectors. For the empirical application we used panel data from 27 EU countries over the period 2005–2019. The results revealed that the overall impact of direct payments on the economic resilience of agriculture across EU-27 was positive. However, the influence of the payments on different key functions of the sector diverged. The most evident and alarming negative changes in the economic resilience levels were observed in terms of efficiency of farms. Negative impact on separate indicators may pose a risk that the influence of direct payments on economic resilience of agriculture may not be sustainable in the longer run.