Energy in Demand News, March 2-3, 2025

Last week EiD referred to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting this week in China and the concerns about fallout from a reported US exit. The meetings have started and US experts are not there. This weekend the Financial Times (behind a paywall) quotes several experts. “Decimating the nation’s core scientific enterprise, even as costly and deadly climate change impacts and extreme weather events worsen, flies in the face of logic, common sense and fiscal responsibility,” said Juan Declet-Barreto of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Censoring science does not change the facts about climate change.” While the body would not “stand or fall with one single country”, the success of the IPCC depended on having the best available expertise and skills, said Joeri Rogelj, professor of climate science and policy at Imperial College London, and a lead author for the sixth assessment report. The Trump administration has already said it is withdrawing from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.  What does this mean for other international bodies that deal with climate change and the energy transition?

This week the UK’s Climate Change Committee, which advises the UK and devolved governments on reducing emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change, published its seventh Carbon Budget. While energy efficiency is referred to 58 times in the report, it is not cited as a  strategic tool to address climate change. While the International Energy Agency states: “energy efficiency is key to meeting global goals such as moving away from fossil fuels and lowering emissions,” the CCC report takes a different approach. In the executive summary, energy efficiency is referred to once: “our Balanced Pathway sees cost effective resource and/or energy efficiency measures deployed across most sectors.”  Fine, but not a great endorsement.  The European Commission’s communication “Action Plan for Affordable Energy,” also published this week states: “Energy efficiency is a key contributor for affordable energy in industry and households, and for industrial competitiveness. It limits the impact of high, volatile energy prices on consumer bills.” Note how the IEA and the EC both consider energy efficiency key.

Check out the latest column by Nils Borg, Executive Director of the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (eceee) on poverty, price, cost and electrification.

In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here are some useful ideas to help you along:

• Country Living Magazine provides 3 European train routes set to transform travel in 2025
• Much Better Adventures provides us with 10 of the best winter walks in Europe.
• For those who want to combine hiking with food and wine in Europe and Australia, check out the Hedonistic Hiking website.
• Cycling for Softies provides us with the 15 Best Cycling Holidays in Europe 2025.
• Travelling in 2025? Here’s how to become a ‘regenerative’ tourist.

Don’t forget: You can still attend World Sustainable Energy Days this week in Wels, Austria (see post).

Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958), an American author, reformer, and activist (Eleanor Roosevelt named her one of the ten most influential women in the United States) provides us with a valuable thought this week: “If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.”

EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:

• A Clean Industrial Deal for competitiveness and decarbonisation in the EU
• Commission proposes to cut red tape and simplify business environment
• The untapped potential of rural areas for renewable energy production in the EU “offers a way forward”
• Blog by Jane Marsh: How Flood-Prone Cities Can Become Hydro Energy Hubs
• Survey of attitudes towards heat pumps in four European countries
• A better way to measure fuel poverty is needed
• EC steps up support for Ukraine’s energy security and paves the way for full market integration
• Governments in Africa should find ways to make green innovation work
• Britain takes important step forward to retrofit its building stock

Please send your comments on any of the posts. Please recommend EiD to your friends and colleagues.

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