While keeping in mind the importance of energy efficiency, G20 Leaders strive to implement an Action Plan for Voluntary Collaboration on Energy Efficiency. The G20 Energy Efficiency Action Plan portrays 6 areas of energy efficiency work such as vehicles, products, finance, buildings, industrial energy management, and electricity generation.
This Action Plan is shared among G20 members as well as other participating countries and reflects ongoing collaboration and knowledge, let’s take a look at it to see what’s coming for our industry…
What is G20?
G20 is an international forum for the governments from 20 major economies. These countries include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Together, a number of G20 economies have researched, developed and formulated possible voluntary options for participating countries in order to address the identified barriers to greater energy efficiency.
G20 and Energy Efficiency: 2015 Recap
For the 6 areas of energy efficiency there are major key achievements for 2015, here’s a brief recap that you can also find on the report itself.
Vehicles. Under the lead of the U.S., 13 countries joined this new Task Group, which:
- Published two reports on policy options and opportunities to improve the efficiency of heavy and light duty vehicles in participating and other interested G20 economies.
- Exchanged best practices on relevant national standards in participating nations.
- Proposed providing technical assistance to develop or strengthen HDV and LDV standards in participating and other interested countries in the coming year
Check out our Resources centre and learn about best practices in energy Efficiency>>
Products. Under the lead of the U.K. and the IEA, 9 countries and private sectors established a collaborative alliance, which agreed to a vision and goal to drive energy efficiency improvements in connected devices for participating countries, and:
- Defined a set of Voluntary Definitions, Design Principles, and Policy Principles for participating countries;
- Established a Centre of Excellence, and an Awards scheme that will support and promote future initiatives in this field.
Finance. Under the lead of France and Mexico, 14 countries joined this new Task Group which:
- Developed the proposed G20 Energy Efficiency Investment Principles to enhance capital flows towards energy efficiency investments in industry, SMEs and buildings in participating countries;
- Consulted the leading experts on identified barriers and solutions through five workshops held in Europe, the United States and China;
- Published a substantive technical report sumarising key insights, and possible solutions for participating governments and businesses.
Buildings. Under the lead of the U.S. and Australia, countries worked together, and
- Published two major reports on energy efficiency in buildings which: 1. Analyse building code implementation; and 2. compare building energy data for majorG20 economies;
- Launched a new web portal for exchange of information among building experts.
Industrial Energy Management. Under the lead of the U.S. and Japan, 13 countries worked together to advance existing working groups, and:
- Encouraged dissemination of energy management best practices, such as the ISO50001 standards through a new certification scheme for auditors, policy exchanges, and case studies, and the hosting of a workshop on energy management in Small and Medium Enterprises;
- Launched a new initiative, the ISO 50001 Collaborative, to accelerate adoption of internationally accepted energy practices, focusing on the ISO50001 standards, and to increase collaboration between the public and private sector.
Electricity Generation. Under the lead of Japan, 6 countries worked together, and:
- Hosted two workshops on technology, policy and financial issues of coal electricity generation, as well as a site visit to a coal-fired electricity generation plant.
What will G20 Do for Energy Efficiency in 2016?
The next steps of consideration for 2016 are in various sectors, some of which have previously been worked on in 2015 as well as newly introduced opportunities.
The overarching considerations include recognising the extensive work done in all the areas in 2015 and being able to further implement the Action Plan as well as welcome new opportunities with the support of participating countries.
General considerations for new Sectors include:
Transport:
- Aim to improve motor vehicle energy efficiency and emissions performance in the participating countries of the Task Group
Networked Devices
- Recognize the need to collaborate and coordinate efforts to optimise energy management through these networks to further maximize savings and minimalise consumption.
- Encourage further work with the Connected Devices Alliance by promoting the uptake and implementation of a set of voluntary principles for the design and operation of connected devices and their networks, developing methodologies to measure network-enabled energy savings,
Advancements on implemented sectors include:
Finance
- Welcome and endorse the G20 Energy Efficiency Investment Principles and further support this work in 2016 through the Task Group
Buildings
- Improve the way participating countries implement building energy codes and track building sector energy metrics
- Accelerate improvements in energy performance
Industrial energy management
- Encourage industry use of international energy management best practices
- Continue to collaborate on ways to support industry uptake of international standards for energy management systems
Electricity generation
- Encourage the construction and use of high-efficiency, low-emissions (HELE) technologies, primarily where fossil fuels, including coal, continue to be a major source of electricity generation
- Continue to support Research, Development and Demonstration activities aimed at developing HELE technologies
What do you think about G20 initiatives for encourage energy efficiency? Do you think this kind of macro plan impact your business? If so, in which way? If you’re interested in this topic, you can read here the complete report by G20.
