Paris:
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted countries around the world to increase energy efficiency, opening up “enormous potential” to address high prices, security and climate change, the IEA said on Friday.
Governments have increased fossil fuel subsidies to cushion the impact of rising energy costs for households in the aftermath of the conflict in Ukraine, which has disrupted gas supplies and pushed up prices.
But a new report from the International Energy Agency found that it had also pushed policymakers and consumers to reduce their power consumption, leading to record investments in energy-efficiency measures, such as renovations of buildings and public transport infrastructure and electric cars.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said that after the oil shocks of the 1970s, governments made “substantial improvements” in energy efficiency, particularly in cars, appliances and buildings.
“In the midst of today’s energy crisis, we are seeing signs that energy efficiency is becoming a priority again,” he said.
“Energy efficiency is essential to address the current crisis, with its enormous potential to address the challenges of energy affordability, energy security and climate change.”
Governments, industry and households have invested a record $560 billion in energy efficiency measures this year, according to the IEA study.
Preliminary IEA data for 2022 also suggests that the global economy used energy two percent more efficiently than it did in 2021, almost double that of the past five years.
According to the IEA, annual improvements must reach four percent to meet decarbonization targets by the middle of the century.
But it said if current trends continue to improve, 2022 “could be a critical turning point” for efficiency, adding that developments this year have “changed the dynamics of energy markets for decades to come”.
Recent government initiatives to increase efficiency in buildings, cars and industry include legislation in Europe, Japan and the United States that totals hundreds of billions of dollars in spending.
‘Hyper-efficient and climate-friendly’
According to the IEA, one in eight cars sold worldwide is now electric.
Building codes are also being updated around the world, it said, as consumers become increasingly aware of energy efficiency.
In Southeast Asia, all governments developed policies for efficient cooling, which the IEA said was “vital for a region with one of the fastest growth rates in electricity demand”.
Meanwhile, global sales of heat pumps are expected to hit record levels in 2022, driven by rising demand in Europe, where nearly three million are expected to be sold this year – up from 1.5 million in 2019.
“Heat pumps are an indispensable part of any plan to reduce emissions and natural gas consumption, and an urgent priority in the European Union today,” Birol said in a press statement this week.
If governments meet all their energy and climate targets, “hyper-efficient and climate-friendly” heat pumps could cover nearly one-fifth of global building heating needs by 2030, up from one-tenth in 2021, according to the IEA.
The first special report on the future of heat pumps, released Wednesday, said the technology, if powered by low-emission electricity, was “at the center” of the global transition to sustainable heating.
The report estimated that heat pumps have the potential to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by at least 500 million tonnes by 2030 – equivalent to the annual CO2 pollution from cars in Europe today.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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