Energy Efficiency and Conservation

Abstract

Energy efficiency and conservation are the most practical and cost effective approaches to providing energy services and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and deliver a wide range of social, economic, security, and environmental benefits. Although they represent the most sustainable approach to climate change, their potential is largely unrealized. This chapter provides an overview of global energy consumption, and explains the role that energy efficiency and conservation can provide in addressing climate change. It then describes some of the most basic legal and policy approaches to energy efficiency that the United States and the European Union are employing.