ESI-Africa.com, the on-line power journal of Africa, reports on the new study soon to be published by ADEME, the French national energy agency, for the World Energy Council that gives some worrying evidence that efforts on energy efficiency are waning.
Slowdown in energy efficiency improvements
Dr Christoph Frei, the World Energy Council (WEC) secretary general, says, “Over recent years there has been a general slowdown in energy efficiency improvements. The main concern is that absolute energy demand is still growing, driven by rapid non-OECD economic growth.”
The findings of a report to be published in October 2013 by the WEC and ADEME, the French environment agency, called “World Energy Perspectives: Energy Efficiency Policies”, reviews the latest energy intensity trends and analyses the policies in 85 countries representing more than 95% of global consumption. It finds that since 1990 energy productivity improvements have helped avoid 9.6 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions.
Dr François Moisan, executive director of strategy at ADEME and chair of the report, says, “The report finds that energy efficiency improvements over the last 20 years have resulted in significant energy savings. In 2011 these savings were equivalent to one-third of the global primary energy consumption. This is thanks to the energy efficiency policies and measures implemented in OECD countries, and which have spread to many others.”
The WEC is the principal impartial network of leaders and practitioners promoting an affordable, stable and environmentally sensitive energy system for the greatest benefit of all. Formed in 1923, the WEC is the UN accredited global energy body, representing the entire energy spectrum, with more than 3,000 member organisations located in over 90 countries and drawn from governments, private and state corporations, academia, NGOs and energy-related stakeholders.
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 
It may be true that since the majority of OECD countries have indeed taken energy efficiency improvements, representing more than 95% of consumption, there is still room for non-complying non-OECD countries to follow suit.
As the crisis nears critical limits, even improvements within the quota below 5% can amount to a significant amount.
More worrying though, the OECD share may gradually diminish, given exploding population numbers in the low-level consuming countries, which in effect raises their threshold to higher volumes, hence increasing threat to the environment.
The only meaningful path is to get the non-complying parties to put right their act, paving the way for a more positive trend.
We do some blogging on energy at http://www.energynewz.net/ and also resuming at http://www.phantomsolutions.blogspot.com/ for the East African region.
Visit us and share our views.
Thanks Paul. Good points. I’ll definitely check out your blog.