According to a report written by a number of NGOs and published by Climate Action Network Europe on Thursday 3 December, the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia do not contain sufficient measures to address the root causes of energy poverty.
The NGOs state that the six Member States’ NECPs do not contain any targets for reducing energy poverty, for example. They also point to the lack of a clear definition of energy poverty in the plans.
In addition, with the exception of the Czech Republic, none of these countries has provided the European Commission with its final Long Term Renovation Strategy (LTRS), despite the deadline of 10 March 2020.
The report points out that energy poverty is an “increasingly pressing” issue in these countries. In Slovenia, for example, 22.7% of the population lives in apartments with leaking roofs, damp walls and floors, or rotten window frames.
The NGOs call on the European Commission to ensure that its ‘Renovation Wave’ strategy (see EUROPE 12581/10) benefits households affected by energy poverty. They recommend at least trebling the average annual energy renovation rates for European buildings by 2030 (the Commission’s strategy plans to at least double it).
The report can be found at: https://bit.ly/3lAF2Wg (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)