IEA urges energy efficiency to wean markets off Russian gas
The International Energy Agency on June 8 urged governments worldwide to adopt energy efficiency policies to stop their dependence on Russian gas supplies.
An analysis paper presented to 7th Global Energy Efficiency Conference claimed colossal energy savings could be made by 2030 if countries implement additional measures, while also reducing CO2 emissions. IEA estimates that by doubling annual energy intensity improvements to 4% globally, the world could save enough energy consumption annually to fuel China, equating to roughly 95 exajoules/year, and 650bn m3 of natural gas. That is four times what the EU imports from Russia currently.
The IEA executive director, Faith Birol, said: "Energy efficiency is a critical solution to so many of the world's most urgent challenges. This is the first global energy crisis the world is facing. This crisis may well be a turning point in energy policy in the years to come."
An energy embargo could also help to resolve the EU policy chasm triggered by sanctions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine. While the bloc will embargo Russian crude oil and refined oil products from next year, a group of member states led by Austria, Belgium and Germany are resisting a move to ban Russian gas imports. By improving energy efficiency, European customers could restrict Russian gas purchases to defund Moscow's war, without an outright embargo, the paper added.
The EU last updated its energy efficiency goals in 2018. The revised directive sets out a 9% energy demand reduction target by 2030, to be met by indicative contributions from each member state. State-owned bodies were instructed to slash energy usage by 1.7% across their organisations, across a wide range of public-sector activities like building management, transport, water and street lighting.
According to IEA recommendations, using digital technology will help transform energy efficiency policy and guide the transition toward net-zero CO2 emissions. It says spurring uptake of digital solutions throughout the power system will help deliver 13 gigatons of CO2 reductions by 2030, and underpin a mid-21st century world in which energy demand is 8% lower than today, but with an economy twice as large. However digital technology will also increase global dependency on electricity, which presents further risks due to cybersecurity attacks, and fluctuations at renewable power plants.
Kadri Simson, the EU's lead commissioner for energy, said: "No matter how hard we work on rolling out renewables and finding alternative suppliers, we will not find sufficient volumes to replace Russian gas on global markets."