The building sector in Romania is characterized by a high share of residential buildings (99,08%) and a small proportion of non-residential buildings (0,2%), according to the 2011 National Population and Housing Census. Most of the residential buildings in Romania were constructed before 1970, without any energy efficiency requirements.

Considering the high energy consumption, low energy efficiency, and the energy loss due to old infrastructure, the residential sector has a high potential of energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

Even if the overall innovation in the building sector is not high, there are isolated initiatives that push for a change in the way Romanians build and use buildings. One of the most successful projects are Green Mogo - Energy Training and Advice Center and s EFdeN, an interdisciplinary group of students and professionals. 

The Romanian agricultural sector is highly polarized. There are over three million smallholding farms utilizing half of the countries agricultural land and little over 12.000 using the other half.

The impact of climate change is acknowledged by both smallholders and large commercial farms. Seed companies, like Bayer (former De Kalb Monsanto), Corteva (former Pioneer) and KWS, invest in research and development of hybrid seeds tolerant to adverse weather events. Various NGOs have opened up urban and community gardens experimenting with permaculture techniques.

Romania is a coal-dependent country with a fluctuating 25% share of coal in the energy production mix. The country has a balanced energy mix with coal, hydropower, natural gas, nuclear energy and wind power having comparable shares of capacity and power generation.

Innovation is necessary to move away from dirty sources of power generation. One of the most recent developments in the private sector is the founding of the first Romanian Energy Cooperative that has the mission to democratize, decentralize and decarbonizing the energy market. Members of the Cooperative invest in solar and wind projects across Romania and consumers have the option to choose the Cooperative as an energy provider. The project is an innovative development on an energy market characterized by centralized energy production. 

Air pollution is a major problem for Romania. The European Commission (EC) decided to refer Romania to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to meet air quality standards. According to the EC, air pollution levels with particulate matter in the region of the Romanian capital Bucharest have been persistently exceeded ever since the EU law became applicable to Romania.

As a result of a growing interest for data on air quality, there has been recent developments on the innovation side. URADMonitor, for exemple, is a Romanian company that develops air monitoring sensors for the general public. The sensors are used by NGOs and citizens and provide with growing data on dangerous emissions in the air.