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Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency for Business Health and well-being
Energy efficiency can improve working conditions, increase employee productivity and reduce sick leave Energy efficiency improvements can enhance working environments and worker health. By reducing waste heat, air pollutants and other process inefficiencies, they lower health and safety risks while improving comfort and working conditions.In manufacturing, these effects can be direct. For example, in electronics manufacturing, conventional soldering requires thermal pre-heating cycles that exposes workers to high ambient heat as well as safety risks. Replacing this with induction heating enables localised heating of the material, reducing energy demand by around 70% while eliminating heat stress and safety hazards…
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Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency for Business Quality and reputation
…and improve production quality Energy efficiency improvements often involve tighter control and optimisation of production processes. By improving precision and stability in how equipment operates, firms can reduce variability in output and limit the occurrence of defects. These effects are particularly important in manufacturing sectors where small deviations can affect product quality and increase waste.For example, an industrial bakery in Switzerland implemented a highly efficient centralised cooling system with CO₂-refrigerant and advanced controls. The system allowed for a more constant controlled temperature and reduced downtime, improving product quality and consistency, all while reducing energy costs and embodied refrigerant…
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State of Energy Policy 2026 Energy efficiency and fuel switching regulations
…with significant withdrawals, relaxed legislation and postponements coming into force. MEPS covering 30% of global energy demand were made less stringent or saw implementation delayed, while only 17% of demand covered by MEPS saw increased stringency. The most significant decreases in efficiency stringency were in the United States, where the One Big Beautiful Bill Act removed corporate average fuel economy civil penalties, and the Department of Energy repealed earlier energy conservation standards for selected appliances. These changes are expected to have large impacts on MEPS compliance out to 2030. Other notable delays or decreases in stringency included revisions to the United Kingdom…
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Energy Efficiency Policy Toolkit Appliances
…programmes can lower the upfront costs of investing in appliances and can persuade consumers to buy more efficient products, while motivating technology suppliers to innovate and produce high efficiency alternatives. By offering incentives, policy makers can accelerate the transition to highly efficient appliances. More informationThis toolkit provides an overview of the most important elements of each policy instrument, but you can find more by exploring additional resources. IEA Appliance Energy Efficiency Policy online trainingIEA TCEP for Appliances and EquipmentUnited for Efficiency (U4E) Energy Efficient AppliancesIEA Energy Efficiency 2024IEA 4E TCP Annual Report 2024IEA & 4E Programme AchievementsCLASP World’s Best MEPS
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Energy Efficiency Policy Toolkit Buildings
…s building stock, which in turn can inform new policy including regulatory updates to the building energy code. Other information tools include campaigns to raise awareness and acceptance among stakeholders and one-stop-shops that facilitate easy access to grants and other incentives, alongside guidance and quality assurance.Incentives such as retrofit grants can promote efficient technologies by lowering the upfront cost of the investment, making an energy efficiency upgrade more accessible and affordable. Grants can direct investments from stakeholders towards specific energy efficiency measures and motivate them to exceed minimum standards by reducing the upfront costs, adopting innovative technologies…
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Energy Efficiency 2025 Buildings
…Policies, such as energy performance certificates and retrofit incentives can help improve the efficiency of existing buildings. To accelerate the deployment of electric heating systems, such as heat pumps, governments can regulate fossil fuel-based heating technologies, harmonise labels for heating solutions, provide targeted rebates, or reduce the price gap between gas and electricity.In emerging economies, the number of buildings is growing almost twice as fast as in advanced economies, so efficient new buildings and urban planning are important to accelerate efficiency progress. Building energy codes, which currently apply to around half of new floor area in emerging economies…
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State of Energy Policy 2026 Government energy spending
…energy has doubled compared with 2019 levels, reaching around 1.4% of total direct government expenditure in 2025. Levels have varied by country, with some reaching up to 5% of general expenditure. Although spending fell from its peak in 2023, disbursements in 2024 and 2025 remained significantly higher than in the 2010s, reaching respectively around USD 370 billion and USD 405 billion. Other economic sectors saw more modest growth: spending on areas such as health and social protection rose broadly in line with general total expenditure, by around 1.4 times over the same period, compared with more than doubling for energy…
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Renewables for Industry Executive summary
…heat electrification. This linkage between industrial electricity demand and growing renewable generation is becoming an important driver of decarbonisation across industrial sectors. It contributes to greater system flexibility, strengthens energy security by reducing dependence on fossil fuel imports, and fosters economic growth, industrialisation and employment. Low-temperature industrial heat and steam are ready for electrification, but market conditions are not yet in place Improving energy efficiency is the foundational step in preparing for the electrification of low-temperature heat and steam. Energy efficiency measures lower overall heat demand, reduce losses and thereby enable smaller, more cost-effective electrification solutions. In…
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Gaining an Edge Opportunities in efficiency markets
…and rising energy costs, and is expected to maintain this momentum. In the EU alone, driven by the Fit for 55 package and the Renovation Wave strategy, the insulation sector could reach around USD 175 billion by 2030, creating approximately 1.5 million jobs. Similarly, electric motors, a component present in a large number of technologies, have also shown remarkable growth. The global electric motor market grew significantly between 2020 and 2024, reaching a value of USD 145 billion in 2024. While the overall sector expanded steadily, some companies more than doubled their revenue over the same period. Energy efficiency…
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Energy Efficiency Policy Toolkit The Energy Efficiency Policy Package
The Energy Efficiency Policy Package