Will April be “the cruellest month”?

The British poet, T.S. Eliot, in his poem “The Wasteland” called April the “cruellest month.”  Thirteen months after the publication of the Commission’s Energy Efficiency Plan and ten months after its publication of the proposed Energy Efficiency Directive, April is turning into crunch time.  The Council (represented by Denmark as President), the European Parliament and … Continue reading Will April be “the cruellest month”?

Russian steps . . .

Rod Janssen of EiD has worked in many regions of Russia and can testify to the problems with improving energy use in the country.  This is an excellent article from Reuter’s on many of the issues facing Russia.   Reluctant Russia wakes up to energy waste by Jennifer Rankin MOSCOW, March 20 (Reuters) - The … Continue reading Russian steps . . .

Energy savings targets revisited

Negotiators of the draft Energy Efficiency Directive have been struggling for months to settle on a strategy to achieve the 2020 energy savings target.  The Commission, Council, Parliament and all stakeholders agree that the indicative 20% energy savings target will not be achieved with current policies and programmes.  There have been debates about how to … Continue reading Energy savings targets revisited

Draft Energy Efficiency Directive Passes Major Hurdle

As widely reported in the press this week, the European Parliamentary Committee responsible for energy matters voted 31 to 22 to start negotiations with the EU Council on the final legislation. It follows months of work on the draft directive, which has already been amended 1,800 times. Key to the proposed legislation is a binding … Continue reading Draft Energy Efficiency Directive Passes Major Hurdle

Focus on industrial energy efficiency

After slumbering for many years, it is back, moving up the policy agenda.  Improvement of energy efficiency in industry was a focus of attention after the oil crises of the 1970s because it could be done quickly.  There was a lot of progress, with a combination of monitoring (actually counting energy consumption in a factory), … Continue reading Focus on industrial energy efficiency