The Institute for Impact Assessment and Scientific Evaluation of Policy and Legislation
The Energy Efficiency Directive needs more reliable data - new IAI study
September 18th 2017
The legislative proposal for the Energy Efficiency Directive rests on inconsistent and unsubstantiated data and analysis. The proposed target of 30% energy savings by 2030 was not shown to have more beneficial impacts than the other options between 27% and 40%. The Impact Assessment neglected to consider how the private investment requirements of between €200 and €1500 annually per household to reach the targets would be realised in practice. The potential for behavioural options to reduce energy consumption should also have been assessed. A more reliable analysis of the data is necessary to ensure effective policy making.
The Impact Assessment Institute (IAI) has scrutinised in detail the Impact Assessment accompanying the European Commission legislative proposal amending the directive on energy efficiency. The now well-documented lack of availability for scrutiny of the models used in EU energy and climate policy remains a serious concern. Further, this Impact Assessment did not fully analyse all the energy savings scenarios between 27% and 40% by 2030, focusing mainly on validating the preferred 30% scenario.
Four different projections of GDP and jobs impacts were published, with no attempt to identify the most feasible outcome. The results were not compared in net terms to the jobs that would have been created by investing the required capital elsewhere. The job creation numbers cannot therefore be explicitly associated with energy efficiency investment.
The projected private investments amount to €200-€1500 per household to meet the various energy savings targets. No attempt was made to determine how such investments could be realised in practice, for example through regulation, incentives or energy price increases.
Finally, alternatives to high investments should have been assessed. In particular, the impacts of behavioural change to reduce energy consumption, relying instead on incentives, regulations or price rises, can be considered.
The Impact Assessment Institute recommends that these points be taken into account in further policy making on the Energy Efficiency Directive, ideally backed up by additional analysis.
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Link: Study scrutinising the Impact Assessment and legislative proposal on Energy Efficiency