Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 4 • Number 18 • 8th October 2004
Report Highlights Liberalisation Impacts on Energy Efficiency
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Market liberalisation in Central and Eastern Europe as part of EU accession has neglected opportunities to enhance energy efficiency in the region, the environmental group WWF concluded in its September 2004 report entitled “Ending wasteful energy use in Central and Eastern Europe“. “In preparing countries of Central and Eastern Europe for the accession to the EU, negotiations have focused mainly on market liberalisation, with insufficient attention given to environmental and energy demand implications of energy market reform,” WWF noted. The report suggests that energy waste is endemic in the region, with average energy intensity at least double that of the EU. Investments in energy efficiencies could benefit the region and the EU’s economic competitiveness and security of supply, enable the region and the EU to reduce greenhouse gas emissions according to the goals of the EU’s climate change policy and could in Slovakia alone lead to the creation of up to 10,000 jobs. “Energy liberalisation can have a detrimental impact on energy efficiency, with a decrease in market actors,” WWF said. “Incentive regulations for Demand Side Management like in Italy and the UK are needed to provide a win-win approach and reward suppliers for increased efficiency for supply, transport and use”.
The WWF research was issued partly in reaction to a recent European Commission proposal for a directive of on energy end-use efficiency and energy services. This ‘energy services directive’, released in December 2003, is currently being discussed in Parliament and Council. The EU directive aims to increase end-use energy efficiency in Europe through a number of operational measures, including developing the market for energy services, thereby making energy efficiency an integral part of the internal market for energy.
“WWF: Energy Efficiency Can Fire Up New Member States’ Competitiveness,” EURACTIV, 10 October 2004.
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