By May 2016, the COMBI project partners have published first drafts of the methodological approaches to the quantification of the Mulitple Impacts that will be covered by the project. These methodologies are first drafts and partners are continuously developing them. All publications are accessible in our downloads section.
COMBI at the IEPPEC Conference in Amsterdam
From Paris to Amsterdam – The route to successful energy policies: meet COMBI at the IEPPEC Conference in Amsterdam!
The next IEPPEC Conference will be the largest gathering of energy program and policy evaluators of Europe and Asia, hosted in Amsterdam, from 7-9 June, 2016. The event under the motto “Make the Paris agreement a reality with effective evaluation for energy efficiency” aims at fostering successful carbon neutral/mitigation policies and programmes in the future.
The purpose of the conference is to provide a forum for the presentation, critique and discussion of sound evaluations, as well as for experience sharing about evaluation practices. The conference aims at gathering new ideas, inputs for current and upcoming debates, experience feedback and lessons learnt about all the stages of evaluations (preparation, realisation, analysis of results, evaluation use).
On the first day of the conference, Tuesday afternoon, 7 June from 4:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m. in the session of „Innovations in the evaluation of multiple benefits of energy efficiency” (Moderated by Jim Scheer, SEAI) Felix Suerkemper from Wuppertal Institute will a paper submitted by COMBI partners:
Widening the Perspective: An Approach for Evaluating the Multiple Benefits of the 2030 EU Energy Efficiency Potential
The paper presents an overview of the methodologies that will be applied within COMBI for quantifying the Multiple Impacts of energy efficiency in Europe.
For a more detailed programme and other useful information please visit the website of the IEPPEC event.
IEPPEC academy webinar on Evaluating Multiple Benefits on April 19
IEPPEC is partnering with the European Copper Institute’s Leonardo Energy Initiative to produce a series of free webinars to help accelerate the understanding and use of evaluation in meeting energy efficiency policy and programme objectives.
On April 19, 15-16h CET, Kevin Cooney (Navigant) and Anca-Diana Barbu (European Environmental Agency) will hold a webinar on
Conceptual Framework for Evaluating
Multiple Benefits from Energy Efficiency
Summary of the presentation
The International Energy Agency (IEA) launched their recent publication, “Capturing the Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency,” at IEPPEC in Berlin (September 2014). Following the launch of the publication, the IEA and IEPPEC collaborated on a project to explore and address the evaluation process relating to these multiple impacts/ benefits.
This webinar will cover one focus area of that collaboration – i.e., the development of a conceptual framework aimed to provide some guidance regarding the evaluation process of these multiple benefits/impacts within the scope of an energy efficiency programme or policy.
Looking for feedback at this session: It will also provide an overview of the draft framework as well as an early opportunity for researchers and evaluators to offer feedback prior to more in-depth panel discussion at this year’s IEPPEC 7-9 June in Amsterdam.
Report on the employment and social impacts of EE published by the EU Commission
New report by Cambridge Econometrics et al. (2015)
Abstract
This study assesses the direct and indirect linkages between energy efficiency, labour markets and social welfare, at both the micro and the study macro levels, using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches to carry out the analysis. The key research questions addressed in the study are:
- What instruments can be provided to policy makers to support assessment of the impact of energy efficiency policies on employment?
- What are the social impacts of energy efficiency?
- What are the skills that are needed to implement large-scale energy efficiency programmes?
Find the full report online
EU boiler ecodesign: Large effects on energy savings, imports and fuel poverty expected
Euractiv note:
New energy standards for home boilers entering into force this month are expected to take offline the equivalent of 47 Fukushima-type nuclear power stations in Europe by 2020, according to official EU data compiled by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB).
The stricter Ecodesign standards for home boilers – and corresponding labelling coming alongside – will enter into force on 26 September, after years of gruelling negotiation between the European Commission and industry representatives.
The Euractiv post explains, how these energy savings are related to fuel poverty and what governments need to do to rip the respective impacts, how effects on energy imports are and how this may even contribute to limit financing terrorism…
COMBI presentation at Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions Conference
COMBI researcher Nora Mzavanadze from University of Manchester will be one of the keynote speakers at the SSPCR 2015 conference in the thematic session 3 on “Benefits, costs and opportunities of urban transition” toward a more smart and sustainable dimension: accounting and assessment of values and trade-offs within the decision making processes.
Have a look at the program and find out about the conference tracks.
New UNEP DTU partnership report on Multiple Benefits of EE
The UNEP DTU Partnership has just launched a report entitled “The Multiple Benefits of Measures to Improve Energy Efficiency”.
The report combines energy modelling with a survey of 25 national programmes, to provide an overview of the various benefits associated with improvements in energy efficiency. It is the first study providing comparable country- and sector-specific forecasts of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and macro-economic variables for most G20 countries.
The report puts forward three main conclusions:
- The efficiency with which energy is transformed, distributed and used is likely to improve, even in the absence of targeted policies to promote energy efficiency. However, introducing such targeted policies could unlock much larger energy savings and associated benefits across economic, social and environmental agendas.
- Monitoring the nature and extent of the benefits associated with energy efficiency programmes spurs the development of new programmes and helps improve their design. At present, most benefits, even the most politically-appealing ones, such as employment creation, are often not quantified.
- Energy efficiency programme design should place additional emphasis on targeted information provision and capacity-building activities, as they are essential for overcoming barriers to energy efficiency. Such activities are often not prioritised and as a result lack the sufficient human and financial resources, which are indispensable to ensure that the programmes deliver their full potential.
The report is based on four technical reports, all available from UNEP DTU Partnership. Non-technical summaries of these reports are also available.
Two studies on Multiple Benefits: on missed benefits of countries’ national contributions and of multifamily buildings
Assessing the missed benefits of countries’ national contributions
New Climate Foundation. Study for the Climate Action Network (CAN)
This report first provides an overview of the general co-benefits that climate action may have and how they could be used to incentivise further ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. We then provide illustrative results for the cobenefits achieved by the INDCs of the U.S., China, the EU, Canada, Japan, India, South Africa and Chile, as well as an indication of the forgone or missed benefits that could have been achieved through action that leads to 100% renewable energy in 2050.
Making all the benefits of multifamily retrofits count
Rachel Cluett, ACEEE blog post
Energy efficiency retrofits for multifamily buildings offer a host of benefits beyond energy savings to building owners and tenants. The problem is that efficiency programs that spur investment in this kind of work are not always assessed fairly. In our new report, Multiple Benefits of Multifamily Energy Efficiency for Cost-Effectiveness Screening, we describe the wide range of benefits resulting from multifamily efficiency retrofits and provide solutions for how to establish their value and include them in regulatory testing, for fairer assessment of multifamily efficiency programs by regulators. [Read full ACEEE blog post]
Full study: Multiple Benefits of Multifamily Energy Efficiency for Cost-Effectiveness Screening
How Much Carbon Pricing is in Countries’ Own Interests? The Critical Role of Co-Benefits
Discussion Paper 2015-77, September 2015
Authors: Ian Parry, Chandara Veung, Dirk Heine
Abstract
This paper calculates, for the top twenty emitting countries, how much pricing of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is in their own national interests due to domestic co-benefits (leaving aside the global climate benefits). On average, nationally efficient prices are substantial, $57.5 per ton of CO2 (for year 2010), reflecting primarily health co-benefits from reduced air pollution at coal plants and, in some cases, reductions in automobile externalities (net of fuel taxes/subsidies). Pricing co-benefits reduces CO2 emissions from the top twenty emitters by 13.5 percent (a 10.8 percent reduction in global emissions). However, co-benefits vary dramatically across countries (e.g., with population exposure to pollution) and differentiated pricing of CO2 emissions therefore yields higher net benefits (by 23 percent) than uniform pricing. Importantly, the efficiency case for pricing carbon’s co-benefits hinges critically on (i) weak prospects for internalizing other externalities through other pricing instruments and (ii) productive use of carbon pricing revenues.
eceee: Commission’s energy modelling underestimates societal benefits of energy efficiency
eceee Press Release – European energy and climate policies are partly based on questionable assumptions, resulting in short-sighted assessments that under-value the economic benefits of energy efficiency, a new study shows. The findings by the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy suggest that higher targets for energy efficiency in the European energy and climate policies could be more than justified. Most EU Member States use more realistic assumptions in their efficiency assessments.
Days ahead of a hearing in the European Parliament, the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (eceee) reveals that there is a clear economic justification for higher energy efficiency investments in Europe than originally anticipated by the European Commission. In the study Evaluating Our Future, authored by Ecofys, eceee demonstrates that EU Member States often apply lower interest rates to evaluate energy efficiency investments than the Commission’s own calculations suggest.
“The report reveals that the Commission in its impact assessments applies many times higher discount rates than individual Member States are doing in their own policy evaluation work” says lead author Dr Andreas Hermelink of Ecofys. “For households this figure is 17.5%, whereas most Member States use figures in the range of 3 to 6%.”
The high discount rates used in the studies for the Commission’s impact assessments had previously been identified as a major reason for this under-valuation of efficiency.
“The EU could have proposed a much more ambitious efficiency target if it had used lower discount rates. This reality-check suggests that Member States are ahead of the Commission when it comes to assessing the benefits of energy efficiency investments. In light of this, the EU should consider increasing its efficiency target”, said Nils Borg, Executive Director at eceee.
