Pressure mounts for greater focus on energy efficiency 

In a joint letter , the group urges greater recognition of energy-efficiency technologies like building insulation in the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan), which was presented by the European Commission in November last year. 

"There is a risk that energy efficiency will […] be downgraded to a secondary role in tackling the energy challenge," the group warned in a letter sent on Wednesday (27 August) to Andris Piebalgs, the European energy commissioner.

Citing a Parliament resolution on the plan adopted earlier in July (EurActiv 11/07/08), the group "insists that energy efficiency should figure more prominently in the SET-Plan, since it is the area with the most potential for cost effective emission reductions in the medium term".

The SET-Plan came as part of a wider "package" of proposals on energy and climate change and aims to "identify those technologies for which it is essential that the European Union as a whole finds a more powerful way of mobilising resources". It proposed launching industrial initiatives in areas such as wind energy, solar, bio-energy and nuclear fission, but did not address the issue of how to finance them. 

The Commission is expected to present financing proposals in December, which should be discussed by EU heads of state during a European energy technology summit next year. 

But according to the group, energy efficiency was largely ignored in the current plan. "The industries we represent would like to see a similar level of ambition across the EU [for energy efficiency]," it said in the letter. 

The group also believes progress in enforcing existing regulations on energy efficiency is too slow. EU member states submitted national energy efficiency action plans in 2007, but it claims they show "little sense of urgency". 

In the letter, the group calls on the Commission to:

• Set a mandatory target for improving energy efficiency by 20% by 2020;
• increase incentives for energy efficiency investment, and;
• show greater commitment to enforcing existing legislation on energy efficiency.

The signatory associations in the joint letter include CECED (household appliances), COGEN Europe (simultaneous production of heat and electricity), the European Copper Institute, EFIEES (intelligent energy efficiency services), ELC (lamp manufacturers), Eurima (mineral wool manufacturers), EuroAce (alliance for energy efficiency in buildings) and Glass for Europe.