Green transition in action in Lithuania: increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy poverty through the renovation programme of multi-apartment buildings

Energy transition has been high on Lithuania’s policy agenda since country joined the European Union in 2004. Lithuania’s National Energy and Climate Action Plan 2021–2030 (NECP) outlines country’s commitment to increasing the share of renewable sources in domestic energy production and consumption and improving energy efficiency. The NECP also highlights the objective of reducing energy poverty, which has been a persistent issue for the country and was exacerbated by energy crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Against this background, energy transition has been in the heart of Lithuania’s green transition while the energy poverty element of the transition has remained in focus. This analysis argues that Lithuania’s renovation programme of the multi-apartment while having achieved significant progress in achieving energy efficiency in buildings still fails to effectively reach the households that are most affected by energy poverty, i.e. at risk-of-poverty population living in apartments. In addition, the programme implementation highlighted rural/urban divide with urban areas and large cities undertaking more renovations and enjoying the associated benefits from energy efficiency improvements than rural areas. Rural areas appear to struggle more to renovate at the same pace as urban areas, while continuing to suffer from high energy consumption of multi-apartment buildings.