Soaring international energy prices that ensued since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war have triggered energy crisis and inflation in many countries, bringing untold suffering to tens of thousands of people in the process. According to the Energy Efficiency 2022 report recently published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the European Union experienced a 39% hike in consumer energy prices, with nearly a quarter of households in the region falling into energy poverty. However, such a menacing surge in energy prices has also forced countries around the world to re-adopt the long-abandoned policy of “enhancing energy efficiency,” thereby leading to another wave of global energy efficiency investment after a multi-year hiatus.

Transport and electrification caught the eye with poor performance observed in the buildings and industrial sectors The Energy Efficiency 2022 report began by revealing that compared to 2021, global investment in energy efficiency soared 16% last year, reaching a total of US$560 billion in total. Among the various energy-consuming sectors, the transpor sector has received the largest amount of investment, with over US$90 billion invested in the electrification of transport alone. Energy intensity, which bottomed out in the past two years (with an improvement of less than 1%), finally doubled to 2% last year. This goes to show that all sectors of society have been trying every possible way to increase GDP with limited primary energy sources (e.g., coal, oil, and natural gas) over the past year. Nevertheless, we should not get carried away. The IEA cautioned that an investment of US$1.5 trillion (around three times the amount last year) is still required to continuously improving energy intensity by more than 4% before net zero emissions can be achieved by 2050.

While the transport sector was thriving, the buildings and industrial sectors did not perform as well as expected. The strong growth in global industrial energy consumption over the past few years was even 4% higher than that before the COVID-19 pandemic. Three traditional industries, namely the chemicals, steel, and cement industries, alone contributed a combined 60% of industrial energy consumption as improvement in energy efficiency in these industries has always been slow. Based on this script, these three traditional industries may record an increase of 5% to 21% in energy consumption by 2030. In addition, hydrogen energy, an energy source that has taken the world by storm and that many people have high hopes for, has the opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but may also push up energy consumption in the industrial sector due to lower production efficiency. As for the buildings sector, energy consumption has risen, rather than fallen, by 3% due probably to the implementation of various COVID-19 isolation measures and the prevalence of remote working for long periods of time. In order to hit the net-zero target, the rate of improvement in residential energy efficiency must double to 5% each year over the next decade.Last year, global investment in energy efficiency grew by 16% while energy intensity also doubled to 2% after bottoming out in the past two years.

Members of the public invited to heed various energy-saving tips The Energy Efficiency 2022 report not only recorded the ups and downs of energy efficiency in various sectors, but also provided a number of energy-saving tips that are worth drawing on among the relevant units. For example, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that took place in Japan last March forced a number of thermal power plants in the country to stop running, which almost resulted in a major power outage in Tokyo amid an extremely cold weather during that time. In order to avoid a grid collapse, the Japanese government immediately issued a “power crunch alert,” which was quickly forwarded via LINE in order to urge the public to lower the temperature of their heaters to 20°C and turn off unused lamps and lighting facilities. Conveying these simple measures on an existing social network platform has led to a reduction of 44 GWh in electricity consumption. In November, the Japanese government decided to continue this policy and called for the extension of electricity saving actions until March this year, in hopes of riding out a tough winter season grappled by tight electricity supplies through concerted by all people in the country.

The war-induced energy crisis has caused a lot of public discontent, but on the bright side, it also presents a rare opportunity for people to reflect on how precious and convenient to be able to have energy supply on a daily basis, and start developing good electricity using habits, thereby reducing energy waste. As IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol noted, the oil crisis in the 1970s spurred many countries to reformulate their energy policies and dramatically increase the energy efficiency of vehicles, electrical appliances, and buildings. “Energy efficiency definitely has the potential to meet the challenges we face today, such as inflation, energy security, and climate change, and it should once again become a priority!”