Energy Savings and Efficiency

Abstract

In June 2005, when introducing the European Commission’s Green Paper on energy efficiency (EC 2005), then energy commissioner Andris Piëbalgs declared energy efficiency to be the top priority during his term as commissioner. This was no bad choice. The Barroso Commission (2004–2009) would be the last commission to have an impact on the European Union’s (EU’s) compliance with its Kyoto commitment, and the recent enlargement to include ten new Member States was a strong reminder of the huge potential, still unexploited, in energy efficiency. In addition, the Green Paper correctly observed that within the EU-15, a lot of low-hanging “energy efficiency fruit” remained on the trees. And this, despite energy efficiency having been part of the EU’s “Energy and Environment” program since the early 1990s. In quantitative terms, the Green Paper estimated that 20 percent of Europe’s gross energy consumption was “wasted” unnecessarily.