UK Unveils its First Ever Energy Efficiency Strategy

The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has just recently unveiled its first ever national Energy Efficiency Strategy, which offers a wide ranging package for increasing energy efficiency across all sectors of the UK economy, and could reduce energy use by 11% by 2020.

Greg Barker, the Climate Change Minister, wrote an article for Business Green that said that the strategy would help “connect finance with demand, encourage innovation, and make energy efficiency information more accessible to the consumer.”

“We need to excite people with the opportunities that energy efficiency brings and show them that saving energy not only cuts emissions, but supports green jobs, innovation and enterprise. There is so much potential in this area and that is why it is so important we have a clear plan of action - now, next year and over the coming decades.”

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The Energy Efficiency Strategy identifies four barriers that have always blocked any efforts at improving energy efficiency on a large scale in the UK. They are listed in the report as; “an embryonic market (young and underdeveloped), information (the lack thereof regarding energy efficiency), misaligned financial incentives (the people who make the improvements don’t reap the reward), and behaviour barriers (the perceived hassle of implementing energy efficiency improvements) that mean energy efficiency is undervalued.”

Investment in energy efficiency, following the guide detailed in the strategy, could save the UK 196 Terrawatt hours a year by 2020, the equivalent of 22 new power stations; reducing energy consumption by 11%, and possibly by 13% by 2025.

By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com