Two important new reports

Estimating potential additional energy savings from upcoming revisions to existing regulations under the ecodesign and energy labelling directives, by CLASP and eceee

 In the new discussion paper, CLASP has identified an additional 40-70 TWh per annum by 2030 from eleven existing ecodesign and energy labelling regulations covering seven product groups. All eleven regulations are scheduled for review between now and the end of 2014. The discussion paper is intended, with the support of eceee, as a contribution to the evidence base for the reviews, and to help prioritise efforts on energy related product policy. CLASP and eceee hope that the paper will prove of value to all stakeholders in the process, and of interest to the wider energy efficiency community.

The paper estimates the potential additional energy savings from revisions to ecodesign and energy labelling regulations on: household refrigerators, external power supplies, household washing machines, household dishwashers, tertiary lighting, household lighting and simple set-top boxes. Televisions are not included as the review process of existing regulations on televisions is already underway. The analysis shows that, of the seven product groups, tertiary and household lighting together with household refrigerators continue to offer the greatest potential for energy savings.

The report is available here.

Global Energy Basel, report of the 3^rd GEB Summit. The Global Energy Basel Summit 2013 was held on January 21 to 24 in the Congress Centre Basel. Over 300 participants from 37 countries and more than 70 cities attended 5 strategic plenaries, 3 policy roundtables, 5 best practice workshops and 4 Investment Forums, in which 29 sustainable infrastructure projects were presented to investors.

The main topic of the summit was to discuss the obstacles keeping mainstream finance out of sustainable infrastructure. Several speakers suggested that the time is ripe for large-scale investment in sustainable infrastructure. Among the reasons for this were:

• The natural affinity between the liabilities of pension and sovereign wealth funds on one hand and the potential yields of sustainable infrastructure investments in rapidly growing cities on the other hand.

• The necessary, post-crisis recasting of finance as a tool for achieving social goals

• The growing presence of the private sector in international policy discussions.

The report details the discussions and findings from the three-day event. The report is available here.