Summary: | This study considers how energy efficiency and other factors (such as economic structure, income, lifestyle, prices, and fuel mix) have shaped developments of energy use and carbon dioxide emissions in IEA countries, since the organisation was founded 30 years ago. Findings include that the rate of energy savings in IEA economies has slowed since 1990, as has the decline in carbon dioxide emissions relative to GDP. This shows that the changes caused by the oil price shocks in the 1970s and the resulting energy policies did considerably more to control growth in energy demand and reduce carbon dioxide emissions than the energy efficiency and climate policies implemented in the 1990s.
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