“Energy efficiency will become even more, not less important for meeting climate goals and achieving other societal goals,” write Jan Rosenow, director of European programmes at the Regulatory Assistance Project, and Nick Eyre, professor of energy and climate policy at the University of Oxford.
Energy efficiency is not a benefit in and of itself, but is valuable for its contributions to environmental, social, and economic well-being the two authors state.
However, “the goalposts have shifted dramatically in recent years.
This raises important questions regarding energy efficiency’s utility in a zero-carbon economy.
Furthermore, the low costs of emerging renewable energy sources undermine the cost savings in energy efficiency: unbounded, affordable, clean energy use could be cheaper than energy efficient investments, and the emerging use of hydrogen as an energy carrier can also help eliminate the need for fossil fuels.
However, energy efficiency can contribute strongly in an electrified economy, state Rosenow and Eyre.