Combining policy measures to reach long term energy targets

Choosing the optimal mix of policy instruments can make a significant contribution to energy efficiency. Well-organized and improvement-oriented legislation and regulations, as well as the right policy incentives, can open up new opportunities to improve energy efficiency and foster new technological innovations. The EU has created a favourable environment for the necessary changes, so it is crucial to identify whether the measures defined at the EU have been implemented at the national level. Systematic literature analysis has been used to identify EU targets for energy efficiency improvements and their implementation into national long-term planning documents of Latvia. The Latvian National Energy and Climate Plan for 2021–2030 has been analysed. The identified policy instruments have been categorized to evaluate the potential strength of long-term planning documents. The foreseeable impact of the planned policies and their implementation mechanisms on future energy efficiency improvement measures is assessed.