Energy efficiency is the world’s “first fuel”

Vital to cutting carbon emissions and promoting energy security.

The International Energy Agency has called energy efficiency the world's first fuel. The IEA’s inaugural “Energy Efficiency Market Report” said the scale of recent investment in energy efficiency worldwide makes it as significant in its contribution to energy demand as investment in renewable energy or fossil fuel generation.

IEA said energy efficiency has been called a “hidden fuel” yet it is hiding in plain sight.

“The degree of global investment in energy efficiency and the resulting energy savings are so massive that they beg the following question: is energy efficiency not just a hidden fuel but rather the world's first fuel?” asked IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven

The IEA found that in 2011, energy efficiency measures worldwide attracted investment of some US$300 billion, a level on par with global investments in renewable energy or fossil fuel power generation.

Between 2005 and 2010, IEA calculated that energy efficiency measures across 11 of its member countries (Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States) saved the energy equivalent of US$420 billion worth of oil.

In these same countries, the IEA said that were it not for energy efficiency measures implemented in the past three years, consumers would be using and paying for two-thirds more energy than is the case.