The growing demand for electricity has a number of implications, principally more frequent power shortages as generation fails to meet the increased demand. This in turn leads to significant investment in additional power stations. The additional electricity production will increase CO₂ emissions, contributing to the climate crisis. This demand could be reduced if energy were used more efficiently.
Compared with the economic cost of installing new power stations, energy efficiency (EE) is a low-cost alternative for meeting the country's energy needs. What's more, consumers save on their electricity bills and CO₂ emissions are reduced.
Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) and energy efficiency labels are two of the most useful tools for increasing the energy efficiency of products on the market. MEPS indicate the minimum energy efficiency level of products that can be placed on the market, eliminating the least efficient appliances. Energy labelling informs consumers of the potential energy savings and environmental benefits of choosing more efficient products. They are thereby increasing sales of the most efficient products and preparing the market for the application of more restrictive standards in the future. For example, the European labelling regulation stipulates that the label must be revised and updated to become more ambitious when the highest energy efficiency class contains more than 30% of the products and/or when the two highest energy efficiency classes contain more than 50% of the products.
In addition, in countries where electricity is fully or partially subsidised by the state, improving the energy efficiency of consumer products will also generate savings for the state, which can be passed on to society through rebate schemes to help consumers buy more efficient products.
Publication only available in French.