Romania

Between 2014 and 2022, environmental protection expenditure in Romania was variable, with a generally increasing trend, from 1.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014 2.7% of GDP in 2022. The highest level of environmental protection expenditure was recorded in the field of waste management by specialised producers, followed by expenditure on wastewater management and expenditure on other environmental areas.

The Romanian government has laid the groundwork for the transition to a climate-neutral economy in 2050 by adopting Romania’s long-term strategy for . The estimated investment needed to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 is EUR 2 000 billion for the three major energy-consuming areas: transport, buildings and industry.

In Romania, there is growing interest in environmental issues and sustainable consumption, with a recent study showing that sustainability and environmental care are . However, there is an obvious need to provide better information and communication on environmental protection issues to the interested public, especially to people from rural areas and vulnerable groups. In addition, there is an obvious discrepancy between the economic levels in urban and rural areas, including between Romania’s development regions and counties. This is also reflected in Romania’s Gini coefficient which, despite slightly decreasing between 2014 and 2022, is still well above the EU average. The poorest parts of the population are in the North-East Region, and the wealthiest are in the West, .

Although the economy is performing well overall and GDP has increased, there are regions of Romania where challenges like energy poverty still need to be tackled. For example, in 2023, almost half of Romania’s population still used wood for heating. In rural homes, the percentage was 80%, usually using old and energy-inefficient stoves with an efficiency of 15%, which means that 85 % of the wood’s caloric energy was lost. In Romania, the rate of thermal energy rehabilitation of buildings is very low, although 8 out of 10 buildings need energy renovation due to being old and energy inefficient. Government programmes for refurbishment are under way, financed by the Environmental Fund and the Recovery and Resilience Plan, which aim to make buildings more energy-efficient and increase the efficiency of fossil-fuel-based heating installations by replacing them with modern ones that comply with the provisions of the EU Eco-design Directive.

The food system

Traditionally, the Romanian diet includes a lot of dishes made from pork and poultry in particular. Unlike the period before 1989, when most of the food was produced in state-owned agricultural and zootechnical cooperatives, nowadays Romania has many small-scale, local producers, who supply products to international supermarket chains on the Romanian market. At the same time, local products are sold in fairs and markets and sometimes directly at the door of the producers’ homes. Therefore, the food chain from producer to consumer is shortened and the intermediate costs of storing and transporting products are eliminated. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has also organised mobile farmers’ markets in urban areas and on web platforms to increase the value and sale of local/traditional agricultural and agrifood products at producer prices and .

Although fast-food consumption has registered accelerated growth in the last 30 years, there is still a growing interest among Romanians , including by consuming more fruits and vegetables, reducing sugar intake, reducing the consumption of processed foods and increasing the consumption of food prepared in their own households.

In order to reduce food waste and the impact of agricultural activities on the environment, several national projects and strategies have been launched. These include the ‘Food Bank’: a network established by the Romanian Red Cross with commercial agents as partners, which has helped over 500 000 families or single people by providing food and social vouchers and provides a code of attitudes regarding the adaptation of agricultural technologies to climate change.

Furthermore, Romania’s 2023–2027 national strategic plan includes innovation actions to improve product presentation to increase the consumption of agricultural .

The energy system

Despite the impacts of global crises that have overlapped since 2021 – such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war of aggression against neighbouring Ukraine and the increase in energy and food prices – Romania continues to implement sustainable development measures for energy production.

The Romanian national energy system provides a balanced and diversified energy mix, benefiting from important internal resources and distributing energy throughout the country. As of February 2025, almost 42% of the total generated energy was from green sources, such as hydropower, solar power and wind power. Romania also encourages the production of energy from renewable sources by authorising the construction of projects to generate renewable energy on . [1]

Coal and other conventional fuels still represent almost 36% of the , but this is changing with the accelerated development of the prosumer energy market. For 2025, 20 836 funding requests were approved, .

Although this increase in prosumer-generated power is beneficial for the environment, as it is predominantly green energy from solar sources, there is a practical aspect that must be addressed, namely managing the surplus energy that will be injected into the national energy system. The company that manages the system assessed this aspect in its 10-year development strategy and plans to invest EUR 56 million through the to accelerate the integration of additional renewable energy capacities.

Romania’s energy strategy ultimately aims to improve energy efficiency in order to generate benefits for the environment, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve energy security and contribute to .

The mobility system

For Romanians, the privately owned car is the main means of mobility, in both urban and rural areas. This is mostly because of the accelerated development of the road network, in contrast to the railway network. However, the National Railway Company of Romania has received funds for investments in railway transport infrastructure of about EUR 4.55 billion, through which 970 km of railway will be .

With the increasing price of fossil fuels, additional pollution taxes and major congestion in the main cities of Romania, correlated with the lack of parking spaces, more and more citizens are turning to alternative means of transport, such as car-sharing services or scooters and bicycles. In large urban areas, municipalities have recently invested in the development of public transport infrastructure. For example, the General City Hall of Bucharest signed a contract for 100 electric buses and 100 new trolleys.

In terms of encouraging a shift to less polluting transport options, the Rabla Clasic programme is one of the longest-running national programmes, financed continuously through 20 budget cycles (2005–2024), eliminating . Regarding green mobility, the national programme also encouraged electric and hybrid vehicles, with the registration of 6 903 electric vehicles and 38 531 hybrid vehicles in 2022. At the end of 2023, 2.75% of registered vehicles . This is still a small percentage, so the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests is considering increasing the value of the eco-ticket scheme for purchasing new electric .