Press release 11 March 2008
Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications
Energy Efficiency Inquiry

Save more energy!

Sweden will meet the EU's energy savings target. But we should go further than that, according to the sub-report of the Energy Efficiency Inquiry, 'A more energy-efficient Sweden' (SOU 2008:25), which is being presented today to Maud Olofsson, the Minister for Enterprise and Energy.

Under the European Energy End-use Efficiency and Energy Services Directive (2006/32/EC) the Member States have to improve the efficiency of their energy use by at least 9 per cent by 2016. The Member States are required to draw up national plans to bring about these savings.

It is crucial to save energy through greater efficiency in energy use. Europe has become increasingly dependent on energy imports. Energy prices are rising. This affects the competitiveness of businesses. Climate problems are a reality. Reduced energy use benefits both the environment and the competitiveness of businesses. Households too can save large amounts of money by improving their energy efficiency.

Sweden will achieve an improvement of just over 10 per cent in energy efficiency by 2016 with the instruments currently applied. But there is great potential for further savings. The inquiry considers it cost-effective for businesses and households to save just as much again. There is a need for instruments to overcome the obstacles that exist.

"We should not be content just to meet the EU target. With such great cost-effective potential for efficiency improvement there is reason to go further and adopt a more ambitious savings target than the EU requires. Both economic factors and consideration of the environment favour doing so," says the Swedish Government´s special investigator Tomas Bruce.

The inquiry provides examples of around thirty possible instruments that can be used to achieve greater energy efficiency improvements in Sweden. These relate for instance to how information on energy efficiency can be strengthened and how the public sector can serve as a model for others.