States are improving their energy efficiency too slowly, warns the IEA

Almost 200 countries committed at COP28 to rapidly improve their energy efficiency but this was not fulfilled in 2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Thursday, five days before the opening of COP29.

The IEA calculated that energy efficiency will improve by just 1% in 2024, i.e. no more than in 2023, less than between 2010 and 2019, and, above all, a far cry from the 4% target by 2030 agreed at the annual UN climate conference in 2023, COP28. Although progress was made in energy efficiency in response to the global energy crisis, improvement has stalled considerably since then, the IEA laments. In the 2050 carbon neutrality scenario, improvements in energy efficiency – that is, using less energy to produce the same amount – could contribute to more than 70% of the reduction in oil demand and 50% for gas by 2030, according to the IEA. The agency urges further action, noting, for example, that almost half of the world’s built areas are still not subject to efficiency requirements. Similarly, only three out of five electric motors used in the world are subject to minimum energy performance standards. “The measures and technologies needed to accelerate progress in energy efficiency are already known, and many governments are taking important steps in this direction,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol was quoted as saying in a statement.

Read more on Swiss Info