The health of citizens is the first priority for governments responding to the COVID‑19 pandemic, but the need to limit the economic impacts of the crisis is also of great concern. Many governments are considering how to stimulate their economies once the pandemic is brought under control. In these efforts to safeguard economic stability, energy efficiency has a strong role to play in boosting jobs and economic growth while also supporting clean energy transitions around the world.
Delivering immediate job creation and industry support depends on deploying stimulus packages rapidly and at scale to achieve immediate impacts in terms of job creation and industry support. In this paper, the IEA examines three categories of energy efficiency investments for governments to consider in their economic stimulus packages to either enhance existing programmes or develop new ones.
The resource highlights the following key points:
- Energy efficiency actions can support the goals of economic stimulus programmes by supporting existing workforces and creating new jobs, boosting economic activity in key labour-intensive sectors, and delivering longer-term benefits such as increased competitiveness, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, improved energy affordability, and lower bills.
- Governments can deliver stimulus at scale and speed by leveraging existing programmes and standardising designs, eligibility criteria, and contracts; choosing shovel-ready options for retrofits and technology upgrades; and considering how energy efficiency can be built into all government stimulus programmes.
- Important market considerations include aiming for high energy efficiency without constraining programme delivery; setting sufficiently attractive incentives to deliver high uptake without significantly increasing program costs and risks; considering the capacity of suppliers to scale up rapidly while maintaining quality and safety of products and services; and considering the consumer motivations and demand for products and services.
- Government can facilitate better outcomes from large-scale investment programmes by addressing unnecessary regulatory barriers; turning short-term impacts into long-term transformations by raising energy efficiency standards; and considering the resource efficiency impacts and recycling sector opportunities as part of programme design.