Are international product energy-efficiency policies becoming endangered species?

摘要

The total primary energy supply curve in OECD-countries has been nearly flat since 2000, thanks to energy-efficiency improvements on several sectors, where international cooperation has resulted in binding legislation among members of the organisation. Earlier, we studied the impacts of free-trade agreements in force among OECD-members to speculate how the prospective EU-U.S. agreement (TTIP) could affect the minimum energy-efficiency performance standards (MEPS) policy. The TTIP wasn’t agreed in 2015 as estimated, and it is still being negotiated, but chances are that the political tide is changing due to recent events in Europe and the presidential elections in the USA. Instead of free trade, we could experience countries withdrawing from international cooperation, and perhaps from widely accepted technical legislation (like MEPS) as well. The Brexit has left Britain to decide how they will continue with their product efficiency policy, with several options discussed in this paper. For the case of TTIP failing its target, we will discuss alternatives to harmonized technical legislation, for example, the possible role of IEC-standards defining several levels of efficiency for products on the global marketplace. Moreover, if TTIP results in increased industry self-regulation instead of mandatory requirements, as the latest textual proposals state, certain principles presented here should be followed when deciding the product groups for such treatment. Finally, we consider how to keep MEPS in pace with technological development and even pursue improvements if there is less ambition for international cooperation in 2020s.