8 October, Verona – A new report from the International Energy Agency has calculated that the global energy efficiency market is worth at least $310bn per year, and growing. The report shows energy efficiency becoming an established market with innovative new products and standards helping to bring confidence to investors.
The report also shows that investments in energy efficiency are helping to improve energy productivity – the amount of energy needed to produce a unit of GDP – with total final energy consumption down 5% between 2001 and 2011, as a result of investments within the 18 IEA countries evaluated in the report. Cumulative avoided energy consumption over the decade from energy efficiency in IEA countries was 1,732 million tonnes of oil equivalent – larger than the energy demand of the United States and Germany combined in 2012.
Previous IEA analysis has shown that energy efficiency is not just a hidden fuel but is also the “first fuel” in the IEA’s largest economies. This year’s report shows that energy efficiency investments over the past four decades have avoided more energy consumption than the total final consumption of the European Union in 2011. Efficiency investments and policies are reducing a continent’s worth of energy demand in a time when fast-developing economies are adding energy demand to the global energy system.
For more information, see the IEA Website or the report’s Executive Summary.