The G8 and Energy Efficiency: A New Partnership

Energy efficiency featured in the agenda of the Group of Eight and China, India and Korea Energy Ministerial meetings (also known as the G8 +3) in Japan this summer when the formation of the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC) was announced at the June meeting in Aomori, Japan.

Urged by Japan and the International Energy Agency (IEA), the G8+3 established the IPEEC partnership as a “high-level forum for facilitating a broad range of actions that yield high efficiency gains.” According to its Declaration, IPEEC will support energy-efficiency work in member countries, and accelerate “dissemination and transfer of best practices and efficient technologies and capacity building in developing countries, which will contribute to the improvement of energy efficiency at the global level.”

Still in its inception, IPEEC finds corroboration in a three-year IEA study commenced in 2005 at the request of G8 leaders. This report asserts that “energy-efficiency improvements are a top priority throughout the economy and they can be applied right now.” Should the IPEEC borrow from the comprehensive road maps for policy, industry and technology development presented in the IEA study, IPEEC could emerge as a dynamic player in the contest against global climate change.