More than 250 private sector experts and public policy makers from around the world gathered in Paris, from 16 – 17 March 2009, at a workshop on international Standards. The workshop objective was to map out the most important areas where international Standards are required to support energy efficiency and reduction of carbon emissions.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), jointly organised the workshop.

With volatile energy prices and growing energy security and climate change pressures, the need to effectively conserve energy in all sectors of the economy has never been higher. At the last 2008 G8 summit in Japan, G8 leaders committed themselves to maximising their implementation of 25 energy efficiency policy measures recommended by the IEA, which cover all major energy end-uses. If all economies adopted these measures, they could reduce global energy demand by 20% by 2030.

Yet none of these measures can be implemented without technical Standards to define and measure energy efficiency performance, and without standardised methodologies to support the implementation of energy efficiency practices. Technical Standards are a key component underpinning all actions to raise energy efficiency.

While much energy efficiency standardisation work has already been done, a great deal still remains to cover all energy end-uses and to measure energy efficiency progressions from the micro to macro level. It is for this reason that the IEA, ISO, and IEC combined their resources to promote the issue.

The outcome of the meeting was not available at the time of publishing. We will provide further updates on energy efficiency standardisation in future issues of Touchstone.