Abstract
Improving energy efficiency across all energy use sectors is a priority within the European Union (EU). An indicative target of 20% energy savings by 2020 (compared to baseline scenario projections) has been agreed upon by Member States under the Directive 2012/27/EU on Energy Efficiency. This Directive has put in place
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measures for the achievement of national targets which contribute to overall EU energy savings. In order to ensure that countries are on the right track, efforts to measure and monitor energy efficiency progress play an important role. Improvements in energy efficiency are expected to help mitigate climate change, create jobs, improve the security of the energy supply in Europe, and other goals. However, there are several challenges in developing adequate tools to measure energy efficiency. This is partly attributed to how the targets are defined, as an absolute amount of energy consumption. There are several exogenous effects which influence energy consumption beyond the measures of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), which presents a challenge for decision-makers in trying to interpret the effectiveness of energy policies in reducing consumption. These exogenous effects include the influence of renewable energy on primary energy consumption (resulting in 1.6% energy savings in 2013), the impact of economic recession (estimated reduction of 71.7 million tons of oil equivalent by 2020), and many others. The EED fails to take these effects into account, and efforts to monitor the progress of Member States with regard to this legislation must then contend with providing clear insights and comparisons to support achievement of the targets. As is demonstrated with a case study of developing an EU energy efficiency index, this is no simple task, particularly considering the lack of reliable data (especially in the policy area) and other methodological challenges. Nevertheless, it was determined that as of 2013, Denmark is a top-ranking country with an index score of 0,73, while Malta scored last at 0,23 on a scale from 0 to 1. This exercise demonstrates that how targets are defined indeed does have implications for how they are measured, monitored, and whether countries are able to achieve them. This must be considered in future target-setting and policy development, as well as ensuring the availability of quality data. Looking beyond the internal logic of policies and understanding the bigger picture and the interactions of other effects on the target goal is necessary to ensure that there are no missed opportunities. Achieving the energy efficiency targets without full implementation of the EED among Member States would mean that structural inefficiencies in the energy chain will go unaddressed while there is celebration in the headlines.
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