Abstract
Global greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced drastically to limit global increases in temperature to the relatively safe level of maximum 2 degrees Celsius. In the coming decades, energy efficiency improvement will be the main strategy for reducing energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Energy management is frequently considered as an important
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means to stimulate energy efficiency improvement. However there is a clear need to understand what the impact of such programmes is. This thesis therefor addresses the following question: “What is the impact of energy and greenhouse gas management programmes on improving corporate energy management practices, accelerating energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction?”. This research question will be studied by means of two different cases of energy and greenhouse gas management programmes, i.e. the Long-Term Agreements on Energy Efficiency and the CO2 Performance Ladder. In this thesis a wide range of methodologies rooted in evaluation research have been used, to assess the implementation process, outcomes and impacts of the energy and greenhouse gas management programmes. Overall, it can be concluded that 1) programmes for energy and greenhouse gas management can be an effective tool for improving energy management practices, such as top management commitment, increased priority for energy issues, enhanced co-ordinated actions, improved insight in CO2 emissions, performance and reduction options, and target-setting; 2) these programmes can stimulate the adoption of additional energy conservation measures. The magnitude of the additionality which is in the range of 25-50%; 3) these programmes can accelerate energy efficiency improvement or reducing greenhouse gas emission beyond business-as-usual in at least the short-to-medium long term. In the energy and greenhouse gas management programmes considered in this study we found that both energy efficiency and relative CO2 emission reductions were enhanced within a range of 0.3%/yr - 1.0%/yr beyond autonomous improvements. Such programmes for energy and greenhouse gas management can therefore make an important contribution to achieving national energy and climate objectives. However, the values for enhanced energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction are far from sufficient to meet climate goals in the long-term. To guarantee higher impacts of such programmes in the longer term, it is necessary that these programmes are being reinforced, e.g. by aligning corporate greenhouse gas emission reduction targets with long-term climate goals, by engaging the supply chain companies in reducing CO2 emissions, by making stronger incentive and supporting schemes available, and by stronger regulatory threats in the case of non-compliance.
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