The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
The UK has a huge opportunity to lead the world on energy efficiency. This coalition Government are determined to grasp it and I am proud to announce today that we are publishing Britain’s first comprehensive national energy efficiency strategy.
The UK could be saving 196TWh of energy in 2020 through cost-effective investment in energy efficiency. This is equivalent to 22 full-time 1GW power stations. Energy efficiency can also cut bills for households and businesses money, it can boost growth, competitiveness and create jobs. It can play a major part in helping the UK deliver our climate change goals.
This energy efficiency strategy sets the direction for energy efficiency policy for the coming decades. It makes clear our ambition, the barriers that we need to address and the additional steps we are taking now to stimulate the energy efficiency market. It shows that there is a clear role for ambitious Government leadership and spells out how we will act to connect finance with demand, encourage innovation, and make energy efficiency information more accessible to the consumer.
Energy efficiency is about progress and achieving more with less. It is an essential element of a resource efficient, resilient economy. UK commerce and industrial sectors have made significant strides but through this strategy we signal renewed efforts to help all businesses increase energy efficiency and cut their costs
The strategy is a significant step to achieving the coalition’s mission to achieve the cost-effective energy efficiency potential in the UK economy, but there is much more to do. We need to excite people with the opportunities for energy efficiency and this strategy sets the path to achieving that.
The energy efficiency strategy can be found on the website of DECC’s Energy Efficiency Deployment Office (EEDO): http://www.decc.gov.uk/eedo and I have placed a copy of the strategy in the Libraries of both Houses.