Government failure to boost energy efficiency ‘inexplicable’, says IEA

theguardian.com:

The failure by governments and businesses to accelerate energy efficiency efforts is “inexplicable”, according to the head of the International Energy Agency.

Fatih Birol said saving more energy was “utterly essential” in cutting household’s rocketing bills, ending reliance on fossil fuel regimes such as Russia, and rapidly lowering the CO2 emissions driving the climate crisis.

New analysis by the IEA showed that doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvements seen in the last decade would, by 2030, slash global energy use by the same amount used in China every year, saving households $650bn. It would also cut oil and gas use by far more than Russia exports to the EU. Ending these exports is a key EU goal after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The IEA said greater efficiency could be readily achieved with existing technologies and would pay back fully the investment through lower running costs, especially at today’s high energy prices. Important measures include the rollout of electric cars and heat pumps, more efficient household appliances such as fridges and TVs, and people nudging down home thermostats and choosing greener travel.

In the UK, making homes warmer and cheaper to heat through better insulation is key. The UK government has committed £37bn to helping households with energy bills but has not announced any new efficiency measures, leading critics to accuse ministers of spending billions but still leaving people “at the mercy of global oil and gas prices”.

Launching the IEA report, Birol said: “Energy efficiency is a critical solution to so many of the world’s most urgent challenges. But inexplicably, government and business leaders are failing to sufficiently act on this.

“The oil shocks of the 1970s set in