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Energy security
Multiple benefits of Energy Efficiency 2025 Energy efficiency provides multiple benefits. This page explores energy security. Why is energy efficiency important for energy security? Energy efficiency can help mitigate energy security risks by reducing the reliance on fossil fuel imports, improving grid reliability, and acting as a buffer to supply shocks. Key facts Efficiency gains from the last two decades avoided the need for 20% more fossil fuel imports in IEA countries. Energy efficiency and demand response can support grid reliability by reducing peak demand. For instance, more efficient air conditioners in India could lower the impact of heatwaves on…
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Affordability
Multiple benefits of Energy Efficiency 2025 Energy efficiency provides multiple benefits. This page explores affordability. Why is energy efficiency important for affordability? Energy efficiency measures can reduce energy bills for households, decrease energy poverty, and make access to energy services more affordable. Key facts Energy efficiency measures can reduce average household energy bills in advanced economies by up to one-third. In emerging economies, they can also improve access to energy services. For many products, such as refrigerators, highly efficient models use less than half of the energy of inefficient models. A best-in-class model can save up to…
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Grid investments
Multiple benefits of Energy Efficiency 2025 Energy efficiency provides multiple benefits. This page explores grid investments. Why is energy efficiency important for grid investments? As we enter the Age of Electricity, global electricity demand is rising rapidly – and so is the demand for the expansion of electricity grids. Energy efficiency can help close the gap between supply and demand, but often at a lower cost, and more quickly, than new generation and grid expansion. Key facts On average, energy efficiency costs less than half the amount it would cost to build new generation capacity and grid infrastructure, per unit of…
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Ensuring a Strong Labour Dimension for Just and Inclusive Energy Transitions
IEA Clean Energy Labour Council Workers play a critical role in the global energy system, providing key services across many areas of the energy sector. To give a greater voice to the labour perspective in energy and climate policy discussions, the IEA Executive Director, Dr. Fatih Birol, convened the Clean Energy Labour Council in 2022. The Labour Council brings together representatives of the world’s most important national trade unions and trade union confederations, as well as prominent thinkers on the topic, to foster engagement between the IEA, energy policy makers, and the labour movement.The IEA Clean Energy Labour…
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Demand and Supply Measures for the Steel and Cement Transition
The case for international co-ordination A massive scale-up of markets for transformative near-zero emissions steel and cement is needed to achieve internationally agreed net zero goals. Yet early movers on both the supply- and demand-side – that is, material producers and consumers – face substantial barriers related to high costs and risks, among other factors. This has led to relatively slow market growth for near-zero emissions materials, at a moment when reinvesting in long-lived high-emissions production could have repercussions for governments to achieve their stated climate goals. Policy makers have the opportunity to play a…
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Global Methane Tracker 2025
Methane is responsible for around 30% of the rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution, and rapid and sustained reductions in methane emissions are key to limiting near-term global warming and improving air quality. The energy sector – including oil, natural gas, coal and bioenergy – accounts for more than 35% of methane emissions from human activity and has some of the best opportunities to cut these emissions. The annually updated Global Methane Tracker is an essential tool for raising awareness about methane emissions across the energy sector and the opportunities to bring them down.The Tracker presents our latest…
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Competitiveness
Multiple benefits of Energy Efficiency 2025 Energy efficiency provides multiple benefits. This page explores competitiveness. Why is energy efficiency important for competitiveness? Increasing energy efficiency can improve competitiveness at both the firm level – by reducing costs, improving operations and increasing product value – and at the country level, by reducing the amount of energy required to produce economic output. Key facts Today the world’s industries produce nearly 20% more value added with a given amount of energy, compared with two decades ago. In the industrial sector, energy management can lead to more than 10% in annual energy cost savings within…
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Electricity Market Design
Building on strengths, addressing gaps Electricity markets play a central role in balancing supply and demand, guiding operational decisions and shaping investment outcomes. As systems change with higher shares of variable generation, greater decentralisation and evolving patterns of electricity use, the ability of market designs to deliver secure and affordable electricity has never been more critical. If market arrangements do not keep pace with these developments, the functioning of electricity systems could become more uncertain and more costly.This report provides a cross-regional assessment of how wholesale electricity markets and their complementary policy mechanisms are performing today. We find…
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The Value of Demand Flexibility
Benefits beyond balancing This policy brief, developed under the International Energy Agency’s Digital Demand-Driven Electricity Networks (3DEN) Initiative, examines the value of demand flexibility as a core component of modern electricity systems, with a strong emphasis on its role in improving energy efficiency. As electricity demand grows and power systems become more electrified, decentralised and renewable-rich, managing when and how electricity is used is increasingly as important as expanding supply.The brief sets out a clear framework for understanding demand flexibility and highlights its contribution to an efficiency-first approach to power system planning and operation. By…
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Clean Energy Transitions Programme 2024
Annual report 2024 The Clean Energy Transitions Programme (CETP) is the International Energy Agency’s flagship initiative for accelerating clean energy transitions worldwide. Since its inception in 2017, the CETP has played a vital role in tackling the diverse challenges of energy transitions across the globe, fostering partnerships and providing tailored, actionable solutions. The programme is structured around three key pillars: directly supporting national transitions; strengthening multilateral co‑ordination; and delivering global analysis to inform policy dialogue.With significant milestones achieved in 2024, the CETP has supported over 320 high‑level meetings with policy makers, conducted 735 workshops and technical exchanges with…
