As India celebrates National Energy Conservation Day on December 14, the IEA says 2022 is likely to be a turning point for energy efficiency.

The latest 2022 Energy Efficiency report by International Energy Agency (IEA) indicates that the largest energy efficiency opportunities of the future will be found in emerging and developing countries. Interestingly India features prominently in the list of the countries with the largest annual energy intensity improvements between 2015 to 2020.

The support for electric vehicles will further help address energy efficiency concerns. This is particularly significant as the country marks December 14 as National Energy Conservation Day. It was implemented by Energy Efficiency Bureau in 2001 to increase awareness.

India’s annual energy intensity improvement in percentage terms stands at 2,4 percent compared to United Kingdom at 2.8 percent per year, France at 2.6 percent, Germany, the United States and China at 2.5 percent per year respectively.

The day garners further importance as the unparalleled global energy crisis sparked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict has dramatically escalated concerns over energy security and the impact of higher energy prices on the world’s economies.

This year’s improvement in energy intensity comes after the onset of Covid-19 led to two of the worst years ever for global energy intensity progress, with annual gains falling to around half of one percentage point in 2020 and 2021. Key factors included a higher share of energy-intensive industry in energy demand and slower efficiency progress, especially in the buildings and industrial sectors.

World over, while efficiency investment has been increasing to reach new record levels, the pace of global energy intensity improvements had noticeably slowed. High fossil fuel cost has a direct economic bearing on the overall economy. Therefore, it is interesting to look at how energy conservation add up in the Indian context.

According to IEA, Since 2020, governments worldwide have helped mobilise around $1 trillion for energy efficiency-related actions such as building retrofits, public transport and infrastructure projects and electric vehicle support. This amounts to approximately $250 billion a year being deployed from 2020 to 2023. That’s almost equivalent to two-thirds of total clean energy recovery spending, as per the IEA report.

Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director of International Energy Agency said, “The oil shocks of the 1970s led to a massive push by governments on energy efficiency, resulting in substantial improvements in the energy efficiency of cars, appliances and buildings. Amid today’s energy crisis, we are seeing signs that energy efficiency is once again being prioritised. Energy efficiency is essential for dealing with today’s crisis, with its huge potential to help tackle the challenges of energy affordability, energy security and climate change.”

Strong consumer spending on new fuel-efficient and electric cars is expected to help overall energy efficiency-related investment rise by 16 percent by end of 2022, to just over $560 billion. However, this is still only half of the energy efficiency-related investment required in the second half of the decade to meet the global Net Zero goals.

India aims to electrify its public bus fleet through bulk procurement programmes, with 50,000 buses procured over the next five years. In the Grand Challenge e- bus tender in early 2022, Convergence Energy Services (CESL), a subsidiary of the Indian Super ESCO EESL, successfully tendered over 5450 electric buses across five cities under its FAME II scheme. The buses are expected to operate around 7.1 billion km over 12 years, saving almost 1.9 billion litres of fuel and creating employment for at least 25 000 people.

In fact, 2022 is likely to be a turning point for energy efficiency as per IEA. The institution expects Government actions in 2022 to boost affordability, security and climate action through energy efficiency.

https://www.financialexpress.com/express-mobility/national-energy-conservation-day-india-in-iea-list-of-nations-clocking-maximum-energy-intensity-improvement-between-2015-2020/2912803/