Environnement

Many Lithuanian households struggle to afford good-quality housing. The housing stock is dominated by owner-occupied, multi-apartment buildings that are energy inefficient and face persistent quality gaps. While average household spending on housing is relatively low, house prices have been rising, and many households cannot afford to move to higher quality homes that better suit their needs. Lithuanian policy makers have stepped up support for housing in recent years, but more actions are needed. This report presents the main features of the Lithuanian housing market, highlights housing challenges that have been amplified by the current economic and geopolitical crises, and assesses current policies to address housing affordability and quality gaps. It proposes a series of recommendations to strengthen the supply of and access to affordable housing, and to support Lithuania’s commitment to make housing policy a priority.

This report presents policy reform options to support Lithuania in meeting its climate neutrality target. It takes stock of Lithuania’s current and planned climate policies and assesses their potential for meeting the country’s climate ambitions. The report details the results of modelling carried out to assess the effectiveness of different policy scenarios, an analysis of carbon pricing and the role of innovation, an assessment of financial needs in the transition to net zero, and an analysis of the distributional implications of carbon pricing. Bringing together these findings the report offers recommendations for policy reform, highlighting the importance of setting price signals complemented by innovation support, as well as the potential of revenue recycling options in alleviating distributional concerns.

This paper lays out an approach, and a research agenda, for assessing the impact of carbon pricing on household budgets. It relies on a rich set of available data and policy models and combines them in a way that is informative for mapping the gains and losses at the household level in the short term as countries transition to a low-carbon economy. After accounting for direct burdens from higher fuel prices, indirect effects from higher prices of goods other than fuel, and households’ behavioural responses, overall burdens are only mildly regressive. Recycling carbon-tax revenues back to households allows considerable scope for avoiding or cushioning losses for large parts of the population, and existing policy models can be used to design compensation measures that facilitate majority support for carbon tax packages.

Since 2006 Lithuania has taken steps to ensure higher operational efficiency and to reduce the disparity in prices for water supply and sanitation services. However, progress has been slow. Concerns have emerged regarding representation of small municipalities in consolidated utilities and increased costs for some consumers. Reform of Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment in Lithuania presents practical options to implement the national strategy towards the consolidation of water supply and sanitation services in Lithuania as a tool to foster operational efficiency and financial sustainability of the sector. Analyses and recommendations benefitted from discussions in two pilot regions in Lithuania, to test the practicality of consolidation scenarios and accompanying measures. Particular attention is paid to tariff setting and different modes of benchmarking – including development plans benchmarking - as tools to incentivise performance. The report provides insights for countries facing similar challenges or seeking to improve the efficiency of water service provision. The project was undertaken in collaboration with – and with the financial support of – the Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support of the European Commission.

The paper is the second in a series of two papers mapping young people’s environmental sustainability competence in EU and OECD countries that were prepared as background for the forthcoming OECD Skills Outlook 2023 publication. The papers are the results of a collaboration between the OECD Centre for Skills and the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (Unit B4) on students’ environmental sustainability competence. The first paper is titled ‘Young people’s environmental sustainability competence: Emotional, cognitive, behavioural and attitudinal dimensions in EU and OECD countries.

The paper is the first in a series of two papers mapping young people’s environmental sustainability competence in EU and OECD countries that were prepared as background for the forthcoming OECD Skills Outlook 2023 publication. The papers are the results of a collaboration between the OECD Centre for Skills and the European Commission - Joint Research Centre (Unit B4) on students’ environmental sustainability competence. The second paper is titled: ‘The environmental sustainability competence toolbox: From leaving a better planet to our children to leaving better children for our planet’.

La Lituanie a vu de nombreuses pressions exercées sur l’environnement s’amplifier sous l’effet de sa rapide croissance économique. Elle s’est fixé d’ambitieux objectifs de lutte contre le changement climatique à moyen et long termes. Les politiques en vigueur ne permettront toutefois pas de les atteindre. Les émissions de gaz à effet de serre totales n’ont pas baissé au cours des dix dernières années, et celles des transports ont même augmenté rapidement. La Lituanie doit faire fond sur les progrès impressionnants réalisés dans l’abandon de la mise en décharge pour réduire la production de déchets et s’engager sur la voie de l’économie circulaire. Elle doit par ailleurs s’attaquer à la pollution de l’eau par les éléments nutritifs qui est imputable à la hausse de la consommation d’engrais et aux carences dans l’épuration des eaux usées. Ces efforts appellent une meilleure prise en compte des questions d’environnement dans les politiques sectorielles et une approche de la gestion de l’environnement à l’échelle de l’ensemble de l’administration. La Lituanie a entrepris d’apporter une série de modifications bénéfiques à la fiscalité liée à l’environnement. Elle devrait en revanche enrayer la tendance à la baisse des dépenses publiques d’environnement. Parmi les priorités, il conviendrait d’investir davantage dans les transports en commun et l’amélioration des conditions de circulation à pied et à vélo, afin de favoriser un report vers les modes de transport durables. Ceci est le premier Examen environnemental de l’OCDE consacré à la Lituanie. La présente version abrégée contient le résumé, de même que l’évaluation et les recommandations officielles du rapport, qui reposent sur les trois chapitres relatifs aux tendances et développements récents, à la gouvernance et à la croissance verte, ainsi que sur le chapitre spécial portant sur les mobilités durables. Le rapport complet est disponible en anglais sur le site web de l’OCDE.