Highlights
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- This paper reviews the latest energy efficiency policies of Germany.
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- We find tangible energy, climate and socioeconomic impacts by 2020.
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- Notably the building sector stands to benefit economically.
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- A ‘green energy economy’ needs to build on ambitious energy efficiency policies.
Abstract
Energy
efficiency policies play a key role in the transformation to a ‘green
energy economy’. In this paper, we take stock of the impacts of the
existing energy efficiency policy instruments in Germany and review the
energy, environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the country’s latest
energy efficiency and climate strategies for the year 2020. We find
evidence supporting the findings of other studies that enhanced green
energy policies will trigger tangible economic benefits in terms of GDP
growth and new jobs even in the short term. Whereas policy makers have
already acknowledged and implemented this conclusion in the case of
renewable energies, our paper shows that striving for more ambitious
energy efficiency policies represents a similar win–win strategy, which
should be exploited to a much larger extent.
Keywords
- Germany;
- Energy efficiency;
- Policy measures;
- Bottom-up analysis;
- Socioeconomic impacts
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
