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Compliance Enforcement, Monitoring and Evaluation (Recommendation 1.3)
Many policies and measures now exist for improving energy efficiency, both of a voluntary and mandatory nature. Alongside the continued evolution of energy efficiency policy measures is the common emergence of a gap - at the point of implementation - between expectations of what a policy measure will achieve and its actual, measured impacts. When such a gap emerges, anticipated energy savings may not be achieved, either within the anticipated timeframe, or at all.
A range of factors have been identified as contributing to this implementation gap, including poor consumer awareness, supplier/installer error and various market barriers. However, the issue of poor compliance is frequently overlooked, despite the fact that suboptimal compliance and monitoring procedures frequently hinder the full attainment of energy efficiency policy objectives. Not only may poor compliance result in lost energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions. It may also encourage free-riding, misleading conduct and related economic losses, hinder market development and foster a loss of confidence in the use of energy efficiency policy tools more widely. At the same time, examples exist to indicate that it is possible to ensure effective and cost-efficient compliance and monitoring procedures.
Recommendation
a) Governments should ensure that both voluntary and mandatory energy efficiency policies are adequately monitored, enforced and evaluated so as to ensure maximum compliance. At a minimum, this should include:
- i) Considering and planning for optimal compliance, monitoring and evaluation
procedures at the time new policies and measures are formulated
ii) Establishing legal and institutional infrastructure for ensuring compliance with energy efficiency requirements
iii) Ensuring transparent and fair procedures for assessing compliance; including specification of the methods, frequency and scope of monitoring activities
iv) Ensuring regular and public reporting of monitoring activities, including instances of non-compliance
v) Establishing and implementing a suite of enforcement actions commensurate with the scale of non-compliance and the value of lost energy savings
vi) Establishing and implementing a robust system for evaluating policy and programme success during and after implementation