Around 48 million Europeans, representing 10.6% of the EU population in 2023, cannot afford to keep their homes warm enough. This condition, known as energy poverty, means the inability to households to access the energy needed for basic services such as heating and cooling. This has a serious impact on the health and well-being of residents, especially in hot summers and cold winters. Although this is a European-wide problem, European rural areas face significantly higher rates of energy poverty.

The problem of energy poverty is complex and results from a combination of several factors. The key factors are low energy efficiency of buildings, low disposable income and high energy expenditure, with rural households spending around 7% of their energy expenditure. In addition, rural areas are particularly affected due to lower average incomes and home, which are usually larger, older and less energy efficient compared to urban buildings. Larger and less compact buildings in rural areas, together with a higher need to heat dwellings (expressed in heating degree days), make it more difficult to meet energy needs. This problem is most pronounced in countries such as Latvia, Estonia, Sweden and Lithuania, where extremely low temperatures are associated with old buildings. In Latvia and Lithuania, the situation is further exacerbated by the high rate of people at risk of poverty.

To better understand and address this issue, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) has produced a new report, "Exploring rural energy poverty and needs", which assesses the various challenges and opportunities related to energy for housing in the EU. JRC scientists have also developed a new index to understand energy poverty, which combines the share of household energy expenditure with four key indicators:

• Inability to keep the house warm enough.
• The rate of people falling behind on their utility bills.
• Proportion of households with a leaking roof, damp walls/floors, or rot in window frames/floors.
• At-risk-of-poverty rate (share of households with disposable income below 60% of the national average). The results clearly show that rural areas experience higher levels of energy poverty, with Bulgaria, Romania and Greece being the most affected. In countries where energy poverty levels are significantly above the EU average, rural areas are usually the most affected, while cities are always the least affected.

Despite these challenges, rural areas offer significant opportunities for improvement. They are particularly well-suited to energy efficiency upgrades and installation of renewable energy systems. Rural areas even lead the way in improving energy efficiency, with 29 per cent of households there having carried out energy efficiency work between 2018 and 2023, compared to 25 per cent in towns or suburbs and 23 per cent in cities. These renovations include better thermal insulation, replacing windows with double or triple glazing and installing more efficient heating systems. More importantly, rural households are particularly well-suited to installing renewable energy systems for self-consumption. The availability of large rooftop areas for photovoltaics and the high rate of home ownership (78% of rural homes are owned by their residents compared to 55% in cities) make solar panels an attractive option. Rooftop photovoltaic panels installed in rural areas could potentially produce 2,200 kWh per capita per year, enough to cover more than a third (approximately 37% of urban homes) of the average household’s annual energy consumption.

The issue of energy poverty is central to the EU's efforts for a just and fair energy transition. The EU's long-term vision for rural areas stresses the need to finance building renovations, promote local renewable energy production and reduce energy poverty in rural areas. The Rural Observatory, of which the JRC report is part, provides detailed statistics and analysis for rural areas in the EU. These initiatives support EU policies aimed at renovating buildings to improve their energy efficiency and enable them to produce some of their own energy, which is a "win-win" situation for both households and wider societyTackling energy poverty is also crucial from a climate perspective, as energy consumption in buildings accounted for 40 % of the EU's total energy consumption and 35 % of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2021.

In conclusion, although European rural areas face significant challenges in terms of energy poverty due to building characteristics, income and climate conditions, at the same time offer huge opportunities for improvement through energy renovations and massive deployment of renewable energy sources. Active support and investment in these solutions, as the EU also emphasizes, is not only about social justice, but also about strengthening the energy resilience and decarbonization of the whole of Europe. Spring

Glossary of key terms

• Energy poverty: A situation where a household cannot afford the energy needed for basic services such as heating and cooling, which has a serious impact on health and well-being.
• Joint Research Centre (JRC): The European Commission's Joint Research Centre, which carries out research and provides scientific support for EU policies. Responsible for the report "Research on energy poverty and needs in rural areas".
• Decarbonization: The process of reducing or eliminating carbon emissions, especially carbon dioxide, that are produced by burning fossil fuels.
• Energy resistance: The ability of an energy system to withstand and quickly recover from disruptions such as natural disasters, attacks, or grid outages.
• Rooftop photovoltaic (PV) panels: Solar panels installed on the roofs of buildings to convert sunlight into electricity.
• Poverty risk: A social indicator that refers to the share of households whose disposable income is below 60% of the national average.
• Heating level: A meter that quantifies the heating requirement of a building based on the daily average temperature. Higher degrees of heating values indicate a colder climate and greater heating requirement.
• Renewable energy sources for self-consumption: Systems that allow households or businesses to produce their own energy from renewable sources (e.g. solar, wind energy) for their own consumption.
• Eurostat: The Statistical Office of the European Union, which provides statistics at European level that allow comparisons between countries and regions.
• Long-term vision for rural areas: An EU strategic framework that highlights the need for investment in rural areas, including financing building renovations, supporting local renewable energy production and reducing energy poverty.
• Rural Observatory: A key part of the long-term vision for rural areas, it provides detailed statistics and analysis of European rural areas, covering economic, social and environmental aspects.
• Just and fair energy transition: A transition to low-carbon energy systems that considers and addresses social and economic impacts on communities and workers, while ensuring that no one is left behind.