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06 ENERGY EFFICIENCY
The international community continued to pursue energy
efficiency action by engaging in various collaborative activities
such as the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Global Energy
Efficiency Accelerator Platform, the G20’s Energy Efficiency
Action Plan, the Clean Energy Ministerial’s energy efficiency
initiatives and the European Union’s Energy Union Framework
Strategy. 3 International organisations initiated several additional
energy efficiency activities during the year. 4
Out of the 189 countries that outlined voluntary plans to
decelerate greenhouse gas emissions in their Intended
Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) for COP21, 147
countries mentioned renewable energy, and 167 countries
mentioned energy efficiency; in addition, some countries
committed to fossil fuel subsidy reform. 5 Over 50 countries
had committed to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies under G20
and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) processes
by the end of 2015. 6 Reducing or eliminating such subsidies
brings prices closer to their true economic costs, removing
artificial impediments to energy efficiency improvements and
renewable energy deployment.
Cities, which accommodate over half of the world's population,
also continued to play an increasingly prominent and active
role in accelerating energy efficiency. In 2015, cities received
international support from a number of initiatives and
organisations, such as ICLEI, C40 and the Covenant of Mayors. 7
Commercial and financial actors also mobilised to increase global
investment in energy efficiency during the year. 8
Due to a lack of better indicators, reduction in energy intensity of
national economies typically is used as a proxy for improvements
in energy efficiency at the national or global level. 9 Energy intensity
is calculated as units of energy consumed per unit of economic
output, or gross domestic product (GDP). Changes in energy
intensity can reflect changes in energy efficiency of an economy,
but they also reflect the impact of other factors, such as structural
changes in the economy to less energy-intensive activities and
the effect of fuel substitution, particularly to renewable energy. 10
At the global level, primary energy intensity has decreased
continuously for more than two decades. Between 1990 and
2014, primary energy intensity dropped by more than 30%; the
average annual rate of decline was 1.5%. Nonetheless, global
economic growth has been far greater, resulting in steady net
growth in energy demand, increasing by 56% between 1990 and
2014, with an average annual growth rate of 1.9%. Global total
primary energy demand (TPED) exceeded 13.7 billion tonnes of
oil equivalent in 2014. 11 ( p See Figure 43.)
Figure 43. Global Primary Energy Intensity and Total Primary Energy Demand, 1990–2014
koe/USD 2005
0.25
Compound average
annual change
Mtoe
16,000
0.224
+1.9%
13,737
14,000
0.20
12,000
0.15
0.156
10,000
8,791
-1.5%
8,000
0.10
6,000
Source: See
endnote 11
for this section.
0.05
World primary energy
intensity (koe/USD 2005)
World total primary
energy demand (Mtoe)
4,000
2,000
0
0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2014
Dollars are at constant purchasing power parities.
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