10 Recommendations to Rapidly Boost Energy Efficiency Progress Worldwide

The Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency has announced 10 recommendations to rapidly boost energy efficiency progress worldwide

National leaders, key ministers, top business executives and other international figures part of the Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency have announced 10 recommendations to rapidly boost energy efficiency progress worldwide, highlighting benefits of efficiency for sustainable recovery plans.

Higher ambition and faster action by governments to accelerate improvements in energy efficiency worldwide are both vital and achievable, according to 10 key recommendations. With the support of the IEA, the members of the commission have over the past year explored the most effective ways to achieve stronger global progress in energy efficiency, which brings major benefits such as lower energy bills, large numbers of new jobs and significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Their 10 recommendations highlight the best approaches to designing and implementing policies to unlock the huge advantages that energy efficiency offers to economies and societies around the world.

The recommendations made by the commission:

1. Prioritise cross-cutting energy efficiency action for its economic, social and environmental benefits

A stronger, all-of-government policy focus will enhance social and economic development, energy security and resilience, decarbonisation, and rapid job creation and economic stimulus

2. Act to unlock efficiency’s job creation potential

Energy efficiency can quickly deliver job growth and can become a long-term, sustainable employment sector

3. Create greater demand for energy efficiency solutions

Efficiency action will be most rapidly scaled up through a focus on increasing demand for efficient products and services and enabling greater levels of market activity

4. Focus on finance in the wider context of scaling up action

Mobilising finance is an essential element of efficiency action, and policies to do so will be most effective if they are part of a wide, coherent approach to driving market scale

5. Leverage digital innovation to enhance system-wide efficiency

Policymakers can take advantage of digital innovation’s potential to enable smart control, better energy management, and wider energy system optimisation

6. The public sector should lead by example

Governments should lead through investment in public sector efficiency and driving innovation and higher standards throughout its reach

7. Engage all parts of society

Implementation of efficiency action can happen at all levels of society, with cities, businesses, and local communities all playing a particularly important role in its success

8. Leverage behavioural insights for more effective policy

People are at the centre of energy efficiency action, and insights from behavioural science can help design smarter policies

9. Strengthen international collaboration

International collaboration and exchange of best practice allow countries to learn from each other and to harmonise approaches and standards where appropriate

10. Raise global energy efficiency ambition

Governments should be significantly more ambitious in both the short- and long-term when setting their efficiency targets, policies and actions.

The work of the Global Commission complements a major IEA report released last week that outlines a Sustainable Recovery Plan designed to enable governments to simultaneously boost their economies, create millions of jobs and put global greenhouse gas emissions into structural decline. Based on an analysis conducted in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund, the new IEA report shows that energy efficiency is an essential element in achieving these results.

“The IEA sees energy efficiency as a crucial clean energy resource,” said Dr. Fatih Birol, the IEA Executive Director. “It has enormous untapped potential to help put the world on a more secure and sustainable path if governments make it an integral part of their policies and programmes across key parts of the economy. This is why I invited the members of the Global Commission to come together to identify global best practices and make actionable recommendations to spur the faster progress that the world urgently needs. I thank all the Commission members for their extremely valuable contributions to this endeavour.”

The Global Commission’s recommendations were discussed at the IEA’s Fifth Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency. The conference heard from 15 ministers from around the world, with a focus on policy actions that can deliver the multiple benefits of energy efficiency as governments respond to the COVID-19 crisis.