ABSTRACT
Ever since gaining its independence and joining the European Union, Lithuania has made remarkable progress in terms of overall economic performance and living standards. That said, it remains one of the European countries with the highest levels of energy poverty, with more than 30 percent of families unable to heat their homes adequately. Energy poverty has only recently gained political attention. But over time, it has been the unintended subject of a unique combination of policies targeting the district heating sector and building retrofitting alike. The chapter describes these two processes in detail while pointing out the costs and benefits for the general population and the most vulnerable citizens. Today, despite all the structural changes, major inefficiencies in both energy supply and energy demand remain and the national political and policy processes, including with respect to the implementation of EU norms, are particularly slow. At the same time, social inequalities, on the backdrop of massive emigration and other fundamental economic issues, continue to grow, and rural–urban cleavage, among other social fractures, widens.
