29
January
2026
Fundamental rights and housing in the EU’s climate and energy transition
Making homes energy efficient and equipping them with clean energy can help the EU to reach its climate and energy goals. These measures improve living conditions and support fighting energy poverty, but they can also compromise affordability and displace low-income families. This report looks at housing renovation and clean energy installation programmes and wider EU climate and energy transition policies. It analyses their impact on fundamental rights. It finds that measures often inadvertently exclude people or risk exacerbating existing inequalities. Climate and social policies must comply with fundamental rights obligations. This report builds on FRA’s 2025 publication: Towards a fundamental rights-compliant European Green Deal.
Search inside this publication
-
Key findings and FRA opinions
- Integrating fundamental rights into the climate and energy transition
- Strengthening fundamental rights safeguards in designing and implementing energy renovation policies
- The lack of equal access to renovation measures impacts the right to housing
- Protecting the rights of tenants in energy renovations
- People confronted with housing deprivation are at risk of being left behind in the climate and energy transition
- Participation and stakeholder engagement in the energy transition is often a one-off exercise and is not inclusive
- Lack of transparency and information for complaint mechanisms hinder access to justice
- Need for integrated and systematic monitoring and data collection for a just climate and energy transition
- Introduction
-
1. Access to energy and the right to housing in the climate and energy transition
- 1.1 International framework on access to affordable and sustainable energy
- 1.2 The link between the right to housing and sustainability
- 1.3 Energy as an essential service in the European Union’s framework
- 1.4 Energy renovations for achieving affordable and sustainable housing in the European Union
- 1.5 Conclusion
- 2. Fundamental rights in the European Union climate and energy governance
- 3. Non-discrimination and leaving no one behind in the energy transition
- 4. Participation and stakeholder engagement in the energy transition
- 5. Accountability: effective structures for fundamental-rights-compliant energy policy implementation
- Conclusions
- Annex 1 – Methodology
- Acronyms and abbreviations
- About this publication
- CJEU– Court of Justice of the European Union
- CRPD– Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- EEA– European Environment Agency
- EED– Energy Efficiency Directive
- EPAH– Energy Poverty Advisory Hub
- EPBD– Energy Performance of Buildings Directive
- EPSR– European Pillar of Social Rights
- ESC– European Social Charter
- EU– European Union
- FRA– European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
- GHG– Greenhouse gas
- HRBA– Human-rights-based approach
- ICESCR– International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- JRC– Joint Research Centre
- NECP– National Energy and Climate Plan
- NECPR– National Energy and Climate Progress Report
- RRF– Recovery and Resilience Facility
- SCP– Social Climate Plan
- SCFR– Social Climate Fund Regulation
- SDGs– Sustainable Development Goals
- TEU – Treaty on European Union
- TFEU– Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
-
UN– United Nations
- AT– Austria
- BE– Belgium
- BG– Bulgaria
- CY– Cyprus
- CZ– Czechia
- DE– Germany
- DK– Denmark
- EE– Estonia
- EL– Greece
- ES– Spain
- FI– Finland
- FR– France
- HR– Croatia
- HU– Hungary
- IE– Ireland
- IT– Italy
- LT– Lithuania
- LU– Luxembourg
- LV– Latvia
- MT– Malta
- NL– Netherlands
- PL– Poland
- PT– Portugal
- RO– Romania
- SE– Sweden
- SI– Slovenia
Related