Countries around the world are still too slow at delivering energy and carbon savings, the World Energy Council has warned.
The body, along with French environment agency ADEME, is to publish a new report next month looking at the global slowdown in energy efficiency work.
But while savings have made a substantial difference to carbon dioxide emission levels over the last 20 years, the council will tell the World Energy Congress next month that much more work needs done.
“Over recent years there has been a general slowdown in energy efficiency improvements,” said WEC general secretary Dr Christoph Frei.
“The main concern is that absolute energy demand is still growing, driven by rapid non-OECD economic growth.”
The report looked at 85 countries, which represent more than 95% of global energy consumption. It found productivity improvements have helped avoid 9.6gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Savings in 2011 amounted to one third of the world’s energy consumption.
“While the progress highlighted in this report is encouraging, it is clearly not enough. We will need to develop new policies and strategies to meet the challenge of securing tomorrow’s energy today.”
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