This report presents financing schemes for deep energy renovation of multifamily apartment buildings in the 5 ComAct pilot countries – Bulgaria, Republic of North Macedonia, Hungary, Lithuania and Ukraine, selected by the relevant project partners as the most suitable to increase the scope and rate of the renovation programmes, while at the same time taking into consideration the interests and needs of the energy poor households.

The analysis, developed after the compilation of the ComAct toolbox, revealed that despite similarities in the building stock and ownership models, different financing approaches are applied because of the differences in the legal framework, financial capacities, local experiences and even “the energy culture” of the society. In most of the cases, however, “energy poverty” is still not widely understood as different than social vulnerability. This would require higher advocacy efforts and collaborative engagement of public and private financing institutions to help those households who, burdened with excessive energy costs, experience difficulties to provide resources to secure their share in the renovation programmes.

To this aim, the proposed financing schemes are expected to steer the local dialogues in this direction, building on the new requirements of the proposal for a new Energy Performance of Buildings Directive promoting the common EU definition for energy poverty and the minimum renovation standards as key for the achievement of the new and more ambitious energy efficiency targets stipulated by the European Climate Law.