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AfrElec COMMENTARY AfrElec
Energy efficiency: a
central pillar of meeting
green targets
GLOBAL ENERGY efficiency must play a central role in cleanest, cheapest, most reliable source of
meeting the world’s emissions reduction and energy, as it involves avoiding energy consump-
renewable energy targets. tion while still providing full energy services.
Doubling the current global current global That is why the IEA refers to energy efficiency
rate of energy intensity improvement to 4% as the “first fuel.”
per year could reduce energy use by an amount Without early action on efficiency the energy
equivalent to China’s current annual energy transition to net zero emissions will be more
consumption, or 95 exajoules (EJ) per year, the expensive and much more difficult to achieve.
International Energy Agency (IEA) said. The IEA also said that improving efficiency
This would also reduce global CO2 emissions efforts would cut global spending on energy. For
by an additional 5bn tonnes per year (tpy) by example, households alone could save as much
2030. This is about a third of the total emissions as $650bn per year on energy bills by the end
reduction efforts needed this decade to move of the decade, against current efficiency levels.
the world onto a pathway to net zero emissions A 4% intensity figure could also reduce oil
by mid-century, as laid out in the IEA’s Net Zero consumption by 30mn barrels per day (bpd) by
Roadmap 2020, triple Russia’s average production in 2021.
The IEA Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario “A third of the reduction needed in CO2
(NZE) sees the average annual rate of global emissions this decade, according to the IEA net-
energy intensity improvement – a key measure zero scenario, must come from improvements
of the economy’s energy efficiency – doubling in energy efficiency. The good news is that the
from around 2% achieved between 2010-2020 solutions are there to improve energy efficiency
to just over 4% from 2020-2030. Energy inten- in all sectors. We don’t need to wait. We need
sity is defined as energy use per unit of GDP. action because the greenest energy is the energy
With accelerated action, the global economy we don’t use,” said Danfoss president and CEO
by 2030 could be around one third more energy Kim Fausing.
efficient than in 2020. These figures were presented at the IEA’s 7th
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said: Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency
“Energy efficiency is a critical solution to so on June 8, as the IEA looks for way to reduce
many of the world’s most urgent challenges – it energy use quickly, with the aim of easing cost
can simultaneously make our energy supplies pressures on consumers, cutting reliance on fuel
more affordable, more secure and more sustain- imports and driving progress towards climate
able. But inexplicably, government and business goals – while supporting job creation and eco-
leaders are failing to sufficiently act on this.” nomic growth.
The IEA described energy efficiency as the
Week 23 09•June•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P5
