The UN Economic Commission for Europe has published a new report that reframes the policy questions from “Which energy efficiency technologies should be deployed?” to “How to design the system, so that proven measures scale, persist, and stay affordable?”
It firmly positions energy efficiency as a first-order system resource and a cornerstone for achieving sustainable energy transitions and economic viability, and calls for integrated governance across energy, materials, and infrastructure planning to maximize economic and social benefits.
The publication outlines:
- Sector strategies for industry, buildings, and transport to boost efficiency and resilience.
- Investment solutions to bridge financing gaps through efficiency-first approaches and blended finance.
- Digitalization as an enabler for transparency, smart systems, and adaptive governance.
- Circularity and resource management to scale material efficiency and industrial symbiosis.
- Skills and institutional capacity to empower actors and support a just energy transition.
The publication contains insights from the technical, regulatory, and policy dialogue of the UNECE Group of Experts on Energy Efficiency and proposes actionable recommendations that operationalize systemic efficiency. It aligns technology, institutions, financing, and people so that the cleanest, cheapest, quickest, and arguably most widely available energy resource – avoided energy use – becomes the governing principle in building a resilient, competitive, and just energy future.
The report concludes with actionable policy recommendations and indexes the body of work of the Group of Experts, inviting policymakers and energy practitioners to further in-depth exploration and reflection.
The report is available here.
External link
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 