Governments and Corporations Launch New Initiatives to Produce More Efficient Vehicles, Lights, Appliances, Buildings and District Energy Systems

New Commitments Aim to Double Efficiency of New Vehicles by 2030, Save More than 1 Gigaton of Carbon Emissions Annually by 2025 and Save Tens of Billions of Dollars Each Year through Efficient Appliances

New York, 23 September — Leaders from more than 40 countries, 30 cities and dozens of corporations launched large-scale commitments on energy efficiency to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce energy costs. At today’s Climate Summit, a new Global Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform was launched under the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, a public-private partnership led by United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon and World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim. One of the initiative’s primary goals is doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030.

The Platform includes five energy efficiency sector initiatives: vehicles, lighting, appliances, buildings and district energy systems. Additional initiatives are under development to promote energy efficiency in industry, the power sector and small- and medium-size enterprises. “I am proud of how public and private partners are working together under the Global Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform,” said the Secretary-General. “It will help expand energy efficiency and save money.”

Targeted energy efficiency measures, such as those laid out in the International Energy Agency’s 4-for- 2°C Scenario, can deliver 50 percent of the emissions reductions required to put the world on a 2°C pathway by 2020. Greater energy efficiency can also reduce environmental pollution, increase productivity and improve individual health and well-being. Kandeh K. Yumkella, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Chief Executive for Sustainable Energy for All, said, “Today we have taken a big step towards harnessing the power of sustainable energy. So much is already being done to advance energy efficiency by national and municipal governments, businesses and international organizations. The new platform will provide the structure and support needed to scale up investment and action.” The new commitments focus on five energy efficiency sector initiatives, or “accelerators”:

• Vehicle Fuel Efficiency. Ten countries (Bangladesh, Chile, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nepal, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Uruguay and Vietnam) are making firmer commitments to adopt and implement policies under the Global Fuel Economy Initiative (GFEI). Thirty more countries are working with GFEI at various stages of developing fuel economy policies. The goal of GFEI is to double the efficiency of all new vehicles by 2030 and all vehicles by 2050. This would save more than 1 gigaton of CO2 a year by 2025 and more than 2 gigatons annually by 2050.
• Lighting Efficiency. As a Summit commitment, more than 10 new countries are joining the 55 countries already committed to phasing out inefficient incandescent lamps by 2016, as part of the UNEP/GEF en.lighten partnership to improve efficiency of residential lighting. The countries announcing their commitments today are: Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nepal, Palau, Peru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. As a result, they will collectively save more than 2 terawatt hours in electricity consumption yearly, reducing by 440 kilotonnes their emissions of CO2 and lowering their electricity bills by more than $270 million each year. Partners of the initiative include Australia, the National Lighting Test Center of China and businesses such as Philips Lighting and Osram.
• Efficient Appliances. Twenty-eight countries have expressed their willingness to join a new Global Partnership on Appliances and Equipment, which seeks to improve energy performance standards for large appliances. The use of high-efficiency air conditioners, refrigerators and fans alone in these countries will reduce electricity consumption by 165 TWh per year, avoiding emission of 54 million tonnes of GHGs annually, and saving more than $22 billion in electricity bills each year. The governments in Latin America and the Caribbean are: Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay; and in Southern Africa: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Private sector partners include ABB, MABE and Bosch-Siemens Hausgeraete.
• Building Efficiency. A new initiative is being launched to help city, state, regional and national governments speed up adoption of policies that promote energy-efficient buildings. National and municipal governments launching the partnership include Copenhagen (Denmark), Lima (Peru), Mexico City (Mexico) and Milwaukee (USA). Among the business partners supporting the process are Johnson Controls, Velux, Philips and United Technologies.
• District Energy Systems. This new initiative aims to support cities or regional and national governments develop, retrofit or scale-up district energy systems. These systems consolidate the provision of heating and cooling to a group of buildings, often using waste heat from an industrial facility. Cities interested in joining this initiative include: Anshan (Liaoning Province, China), Betim (Brazil), Bogotá (Colombia), Focsani (Romania), Helsinki (Finland), Jinan (Shandong Province, China), London (UK), Milano (Italy), Nairobi (Kenya), Paris (France), Quito (Ecuador), Recife (Brazil), San Jose (Costa Rica), Santiago de Cali (Colombia), Seoul (Republic of Korea), Sorocaba (Brazil), St. Paul (USA), Vancouver (Canada) and Vaxjo (Sweden). Action by these 19 cities could avoid more than five Mt of CO2 emissions annually. Private sector partners include: Danfoss, Grundfos, Siemens, Vattenfall, Veolia, Climespace and Empower.

In addition, a number of national and city governments are pledging to tackle energy efficiency at a broader level by participating in the Global Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform. These include Chile and Nicaragua, Almaty and Astana (Kazakhstan), Cetinje (Montenegro), Jinan City (China), Leon (Mexico), Lima (Peru), Manila (Philippines), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Timphu City (Bhutan), Toyama (Japan), Ulan Bator (Mongolia), Warsaw (Poland), and the Iskandar Region of Malaysia, with ten municipalities. These governments are being joined by international organizations and financial institutions that will help them prepare road maps and investment and action plans.

They include: the World Bank (ESMAP), IDB, UNDP, EBRD, ADB and Energy+ of Norway.

“Energy efficiency has enormous potential to increase global productivity and prosperity while cutting waste and limiting emissions. Partnerships such as the UNEP-GEF en.lighten initiative and the Global Fuel Economy Initiative show that achieving this is well within our grasp,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), who co-chairs the energy efficiency work of the Sustainable Energy for All Advisory Board.

“We must move quickly, decisively and in concert to enact and expand these bold measures.” These announcements form part of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call to keep global temperature increases to less than two degrees Celsius by reducing emissions, moving money, pricing pollution, strengthening resilience and mobilizing new coalitions. Energy is one of eight areas identified as critical and further developed during the Abu Dhabi Ascent, a two-day meeting held in the United Arab Emirates in May 2014.