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Energy Efficiency
11th Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency
The International Energy Agency’s 11th Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency is being co-hosted by IEA Executive Director Dr Fatih Birol and Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson on 29 and 30 June 2026. Hydro-Québec, a recognised leader in energy efficiency, will also help drive industry engagement at the event.
The 11th edition of the IEA’s landmark event comes at a pivotal moment. Many governments around the world are focused on stronger action on energy efficiency as a key policy priority in order to ensure…
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Lighting
Country and regional highlights
Prominent progress in increasing standards and labels for lighting
CO2 emissions
CO2 emissions by lighting increased marginally in 2022, despite increased uptake of efficient lamps
Energy
Increased energy demand for service lighting more than offset a drop in residential lighting in 2022
Activity
Increasing building space and population is driving additional demand for lighting
Technology deployment
LED is now the leading lighting technology in homes
Innovation
Policy
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Grid-scale Storage
Country and regional highlights
Major markets target greater deployment of storage additions through new funding and strengthened recommendations
Technology deployment
Pumped-storage hydropower is still the most widely deployed storage technology, but grid-scale batteries are catching up
Innovation
While innovation on lithium-ion batteries continues, further cost reductions depend on critical mineral prices
Policy
Investment
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Electrification
Country and regional highlights
Electrification gains momentum across countries and sectors
CO2 emissions
In the Net Zero by 2050 Scenario, from now to 2030 most electrification-related emission reductions occur in transport
Energy
The share of electricity in energy demand will need to increase by 4% per year to get on track with the Net Zero by 2050 Scenario
Technology deployment
New cars and new houses are the main areas for deployment of electrification technologies
Policy
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Wind
Wind has significant potential to boost growth in global renewable capacity
Electricity generation from renewables is expected to increase by 60% through 2030 – rising from 9 900 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024 to 16 200 TWh by the end of the decade. Wind accounts for almost a third of growth, second only to solar PV, which accounts for 60%.
Although wind power continues to face supply chain issues, rising costs and permitting delays today, global capacity is still expected to nearly double to over 2 000 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 as both advanced and developing economies tackle these barriers.
Around…
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Trucks and Buses
Electrification of road transport goes beyond cars and the ambition is growing
Globally, almost 50 000 electric buses were sold in 2023, equating to 3% of total bus sales and bringing the global stock to approximately 635 000 in total. Several European countries (such as Belgium, Norway and Switzerland) and China achieved sales shares above 50% in 2023, and more than one-fifth of bus sales were electric in Canada, Chile, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Sweden.
Sales of electric trucks increased 35% in 2023 compared to 2022, meaning that total sales of electric trucks surpassed electric buses for…
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Renewable Integration
Renewable Integration
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Building Envelopes
Stronger efficiency is the first and best policy to bring down energy bills
Variations in energy efficiency exist both within and among countries. For example, in some European countries with similar climates it can take twice as much energy to heat the same floor area or within one country the energy consumed between the most efficient and least efficient homes for a given size can vary by a factor of up to three.
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Data Centres and Data Transmission Networks
CO2 emissions
Data centres and data transmission networks are responsible for 1% of energy-related GHG emissions
Energy
Strong efficiency improvements have helped to limit growth in energy demand from data centres globally
Activity
Emerging services and technologies such as streaming, cloud gaming, blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning and virtual reality are poised to boost demand for data services
Renewable energy
Policy
Private sector initiatives
Acknowledgements
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Appliances and Equipment
Standards and labelling can lift the average rate of energy efficiency improvement by two to three times
Based on global evidence from countries with Energy efficiency standards and labelling (EES&L) programmes, the average energy efficiency of new major appliances in these countries can increase two to three times the underlying rate of technology improvement. This can result in average energy reductions of 10-30% over 15 to 20 years in the stock of most regulated products across all countries.
In leading countries with strong regulations and long-running programmes which are regularly updated, the contribution could be much higher…