The Proof of the Pudding: Making Energy Efficiency Work

If Western industrialized market economies are to realize a substantial proportion of the potential benefits of increased energy efficiency, there is a need to move beyond engineering and economic estimates of efficiency potential and to consider seriously the implications of the behavioural and programme evaluation literature on energy efficiency. That literature suggests that reliance upon market mechanisms alone will not permit realization of economically efficient levels of energy efficiency. However, it points the way toward designing energy efficiency programmes that show real promise of significantly achieving their potential in industrialized market economies.