Energy in Demand News, March 15-16, 2026

building renovation, carbon emissions, climate change, decarbonisation, electrification, energy efficiency, energy policy, energy transition, GHG emissions, industry, international co-operation, national policies, renewable energy

The 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency agreed this week to make 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves available to the market to address disruptions in oil markets stemming from the war in the Middle East. IEA members hold emergency stockpiles of over 1.2 billion barrels, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation. The coordinated stock release is the sixth in the history of the IEA, which was created in 1974. Previous collective actions were taken in 1991, 2005, 2011, and twice in 2022. Politico reported that the US holds 415 million barrels of crude oil in its underground storages and that the Trump administration will release 172 million of those barrels — over 40 % of the reserves. As of Friday, oil prices remained about $100 a barrel despite the biggest-ever release of emergency oil reserves. Many are predicting it will go up. Now, is saving a barrel of oil through improved energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment that expensive? Or that volatile?

That is partly answered by the modelling undertaken by the UK’s Climate Change Committee. As reported in the Financial Times: “Reaching net zero by 2050 will cost less than the economic hit of a fossil fuel price rise similar to the 2022 energy shock. The Climate Change Committee said modelling showed average household energy bills would jump by 59 per cent in the event of a price rise of the same magnitude as that seen after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, if fossil fuel reliance remained heavy… By contrast, bills would rise by only 4 per cent in the “balanced pathway” towards cutting emissions, the committee found. Net zero carbon emissions by the middle of this century was the “more cost-effective path for the UK economy than continued reliance on fossil fuels”, it said.” Importantly, the committee concluded that “For every pound spent on net zero, the benefits would outweigh the cost by between 2.2 and 4.1 times.” Remember that!

The European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (eceee) announced the launch of a new journal, The European Journal for Studies in Energy Demand, Efficiency and Resource Use (short: Energy Demand). It is now open for manuscript submissions. See the eceee article on the new journal.

Many relevant events are coming up – you can see the latest list in a post this week. If you know of an upcoming event that EiD readers should know about, please contact us. Let us know your experience.

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

Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958) an educational reformer, social activist, and best-selling American author in the early 20th century once more gives us an important message to reflect on this week: “Freedom is not worth fighting for if it means no more than license for everyone to get as much as he can for himself.”

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

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