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The World Cup of Energy
Efficiency
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This year, Germany won the World Cup of soccer in Brazil. What a tournament. I was stunned by how many people were excited about it. Germany also won the World Cup of Energy Efficiency, a ranking developed by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE). It evaluated 16 leading world economies on 31 categories. These 16 economies represent 81% of global gross domestic product and 71% of global energy consumption.
The ACEEE ranking system looks at
both "policy metrics" and "performance metrics" to
measure a country's overall energy efficiency. Examples of "policy
metrics" include the presence of a national energy savings target, fuel
economy standards for vehicles, and energy efficiency standards for
appliances. The "performance metrics" measure energy use and
provide quantifiable results. Examples of "performance metrics"
include average miles per gallon of on-road passenger vehicles and energy
consumed per square foot of floor space in residential buildings. New metrics
for this year's edition include water efficiency policy, agricultural
efficiency, building retrofit policies, heavy-duty fuel efficiency standards,
and investment in energy efficiency by the private sector.
1. Germany
2. Italy
3. European Union
4/5. Tie: China and France
6/7. Tie: Japan and United Kingdom
8. Spain
9. Canada
10. Australia
11. India
12. South Korea
13. United States
14. Russia
15. Brazil
16. Mexico
ACEEE divided the 31 metrics
across four groupings: those that track cross-cutting aspects of energy use
at the national level, as well as the three sectors primarily responsible for
energy consumption in an economically developed country -- buildings,
industry, and transportation. The top-scoring countries in each grouping are:
E.U., France, and Italy (three-way tie for national efforts); China
(buildings); Germany (industry); and Italy (transportation).
ACEEE noted that the United
States, long considered an innovative and competitive world leader, has
progressed slowly and has made limited progress since its last report, even
as Germany, Italy, China, and other nations surge ahead. The EPA's new carbon
pollution standards for existing power plants proposed this June would be a
major stride in raising the US score. ACEEE documents dozens of other
international best practices that the U.S. could implement to improve its
score.
U.S. Congressman Peter Welch (Vermont)
said: "There's really no excuse for the U.S. lagging behind other
nations on energy efficiency. States like Vermont have demonstrated that
energy efficiency saves money, reduces environmental impact, and creates
jobs. And, in an environment of gridlock, there is bipartisan common ground
on this issue in Congress." In fact, Vermont recently increased its net
energy metering cap, nearly quadrupling the percent of power that the state's
utilities can accept from distributed resources. Vermont's bipartisan cap is
now a whopping 15%!
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