Everyone on the planet Earth has a responsibility to make the planet more sustainable. Considering the global dominance of fossil fuels, which pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gas emissions, there is an urgent need to reduce their use in order to prevent serious climate change. Accordingly, reducing energy consumption also plays a key role in tackling the negative effects of global climate change. Reducing energy consumption is important, because fossil fuels account for the majority of the world’s energy use and it will take decades to fully switch to renewable energy sources. With each year of inaction, the remaining carbon budget shrinks. In order to reduce the ever-increasing energy consumption, it is necessary to increase the efficiency of all energy-using appliances and to ensure the rational use of energy. In the European Union, the building sector is one of the largest consumers of energy and one of the largest sources of CO2 emissions. Consequently, in order to achieve energy and climate goals, the European Union must improve the energy efficiency of buildings. In Latvia the building sector represents approximately 40% of the total energy balance. Considering average energy consumption for heating, buildings have significantly lower thermal properties than can be provided by currently available technologies. For the 2021-2030 planning period, newly built buildings in Latvia must correspond to near-zero energy buildings. Progressive energy efficiency requirements for buildings in Latvia help to move towards the country’s overall energy savings target in the planning period until 2030 and facilitate the transition to a low level heat consumption. In order to achieve its energy and climate goals, the European Union must provide greater financial support to the member states contributing to energy efficiency improvements of buildings.