New report on whether changing behaviour can save energy

The European Environment Agency (EEA) recently published a report that investigates what it takes to achieve energy savings through changing consumer behaviour and launches an online survey to know more about society's views on the topic.The EEA report, Achieving energy efficiency through behaviour change: what does it take? reviews recent studies on behaviour change and … Continue reading New report on whether changing behaviour can save energy →

Monitoring as we need it

EU member states have been given many tasks to promote energy efficiency in general and in the end-use sectors, meet 2016 targets, meet 2020 targets and contribute to energy and climate objectives. For countries with well funded and functioning energy agencies, the task is easier, but for most it is not easy, even if we … Continue reading Monitoring as we need it →

An ACE effort

The UK’s Association for the Conservation of Energy has produced an excellent “fact-file” comparing fuel poverty and energy efficiency in the UK to 15 other European countries with comparable levels of prosperity and heating need. It ranks these countries against six key indicators for which consistent and recent European data are available to assess the … Continue reading An ACE effort →

New energy efficiency regulations for renovation work in Finland

Finland’s Ministry of the Environment issued new regulations on February 27th for improving the energy efficiency of buildings during renovation and alteration works. The regulations will come into effect on June 1, 2013 for buildings in public use and on September 1, 2013 for other buildings. The regulations define the minimum requirements for energy efficiency … Continue reading New energy efficiency regulations for renovation work in Finland →

UK’s Green Investment Bank supports new energy efficiency initiative

Louise Downing writes for Business Week about an investment by the GIB for an energy innovation centre for hospitals in Cambridge. U.K. Green Bank Backs Energy Efficiency Center for Hospitals The U.K. Green Investment Bank provided 18 million pounds ($27 million) to build a facility in Cambridge, southeast England, that will include a biomass … Continue reading UK’s Green Investment Bank supports new energy efficiency initiative →

Backlash?

In February, the Bulgarian government resigned amidst protests about high electricity prices and other austerity measures that were considered too harsh on consumers. While many other governments have fallen recently because of austerity measures, the Bulgarian case was the first to relate specifically to energy prices. Now we are seeing increasing frustration in the UK … Continue reading Backlash? →

New reports for your spring reading

There are a few new reports that are well worth spending time reading. The first is a comparison of German and UK experience in evaluating energy efficiency programmes. The second concerns climate policy and industry, policy interaction and the external environment. The third is on developing roadmaps for a retrofit strategy. Evaluating the evaluations: … Continue reading New reports for your spring reading →

More interaction . . .

In the past few months, we have had data hubs from the IEA’s Sustainable Building Centre and the BPIE. They are both excellent, and constantly evolving, which is good. On February 8th, EiD had a post that included reports coming from ENTRANZE, a project funded by Intelligent Energy Europe to support policy making to encourage … Continue reading More interaction . . . →

Target setting and the role of consumer behaviour – ask an expert

EiD recently wrote Dr Sea Rotmann, the Operating Agent for the IEA DSM Implementing Agreement Task 24 [Closing the Loop - Behaviour Change in DSM: From Theory to Policies and Practice] and asked her: Given the role of behaviour in affecting energy demand, how can governments ever agree to a binding target for energy savings? … Continue reading Target setting and the role of consumer behaviour – ask an expert →

Potential for energy savings in Romania

Romania Insider provides a good article on energy efficiency measures that can be deployed in Romania to good effect. It is based on the study from a new industry association promoting energy efficiency in Romania. Study: Energy efficiency measures can save Romania some EUR 7.4 billion Romania has the potential to cut its energy … Continue reading Potential for energy savings in Romania →