No European country is fully prepared to scale heat pumps and meet climate goals. The Reform Institute’s new report ranks 10 European markets, revealing policy gaps that could stall the clean heating transition.

Among the 10 countries surveyed, none were found to have “robust” heat pump policies. France leads the ranking with just 69%, but its heat pump market has stagnated since 2023. Czechia follows in second place with 65%, while Poland and Germany are tied third place (ex aequo), with 61%. The cohort of followers, including the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain, struggles with insufficient or inadequate policies, particularly in liquidity safeguards and ensuring quality control. Romania ranks lowest, with 21%, reflecting the weakest policy framework, despite having similar potential to countries like Poland and Czechia.

The report identifies seven critical shortcomings across the countries surveyed. These are:

• Long subsidy payment delays for households
• High electricity prices compared to gas
• Poor outreach to vulnerable households
• Lack of loans to pay for costs not covered by subsidies
• Complicated subsidy application processes
• Subsidies not linked to household income, meaning low-income households are not reached
• Lack of heat pump certification, meaning low-quality heat pumps could spread

The Reform Institute calls for the implementation of an EU-wide Heat Pump Action Plan, which would accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuel boilers, improve financial incentives, and standardise regulations across Europe.

Read the full report for recommendations, including those specific to each country covered.

Discover the key findings for a European common policy in the press release.

Reform Institute also prepared a policy brief, based on the aforementioned report and it is is presenting several most vital recommendations to increase the implementation of heat pumps and lowering their costs.

Some of the conclusions presented in the brief are:

• The EU is currently at risk of missing the targets set for 2030, which include 60 million heat pumps being installed. The current gaps accounts for 25 million and still growing
• Some of the key aspects needed for the improvement of the heat pump affordability are a citizen-friendly support schemes, properly managed electricity pricing policies as well as an improved regulatory framework
• Although, many heat pump support schemes are already provided by the Member States, many of them have critical flaws which make them ineffective and often unfair to vulnerable and low-income households.
• The EU's Electrification Action Plan can address policy gaps and support heat pump roll-out, helping citizens transition away from fossil fuel heating.
• The revision of the Energy Taxation Directive is needed to ensure energy pricing supports heat pumps and discourages fossil fuel use in residential buildings.
• Strong national implementation of EU policies is essential to meet targets, and backsliding must be avoided.
• Adequate financing, including funding from ETS2 and the EU’s 2028-2034 Financial Framework, is necessary to support the heating transition.

The policy brief is available below.