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Australia’s $290 billion smart energy export opportunity 11 October 2016

Australia has a huge opportunity to export energy saving technologies to China and the world according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). 

The IEA is the world’s leading body on energy, producing reports on oil, gas, coal, renewables and energy efficiency. The IEA’s Energy Efficiency Market Report 2016 found that in 2015 improvements in energy efficiency met more of the world’s energy needs than new generation, making it an enormous business opportunity.

China alone invested $485 billion in energy efficiency between 2006 and 2014, delivering as much ‘energy’ as China’s investment in renewable energy. The global market for energy efficiency was worth a staggering $290 billion in 2015, and is growing at a remarkable rate, increasing 6 per cent in just one year.

The IEA’s detailed new report was released today in Paris, focusing on the booming market for energy efficiency products and services in China. The report notes that energy efficiency is the ‘single largest action’ to help decarbonise the global energy supply, but that it will also bring huge economic opportunities. The report also found that mandatory energy efficiency programs were critically important to capture this huge opportunity.

“Our 2016 Energy Efficiency Market Report demonstrates that businesses and governments around the world understand the critical role energy efficiency will play in the transition to a low carbon economy,” said Brian Motherway, the IEA’s Head of Energy Efficiency, who is visiting Sydney in November 2016.

"Not only that, they and are acting on that knowledge, and pursuing cost effective energy efficiency that has benefits well beyond savings on energy bills in terms of comfort, health and productivity."

"This opens up significant opportunities for Australia to tap into the rapidly growing export market for energy efficient products and services, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. I’m looking forward to discussing these opportunities at the National Energy Efficiency Conference in November," concluded Dr. Motherway.

The IEA's 2016 Energy Efficiency Market Report can be downloaded from the IEA website: www.iea.org/eemr16/

The IEA's Head of Energy Efficiency, Brian Motherway, is the international keynote speaker at the National Energy Efficiency Conference 2016, which will take place on 15th and 16th November in Sydney. For more details visit: www.eec.org.au/NEEC16

Media contact
Rob Murray-Leach    
Head of Policy     
Energy Efficiency Council   
M: 0414 065 556    
E: rob.murray-leach@eec.org.au