Secretary Chu and Other World Leaders Form International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation

The Department of Energy recently announced that U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu joined with top energy leaders from around the world to launch the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC). The IPEEC will serve as a high-level forum for facilitating a broad range of actions that yield energy efficiency gains and encourage market implementation of key energy efficiency technologies.

Improving energy savings and energy efficiency is one of the quickest, greenest, and most cost-effective ways to address energy security and climate change, and ensure economic growth. In the U.S., more energy is used in buildings than in any other sector of the economy. Secretary Chu has challenged Department of Energy researchers to help develop building designs that are far more efficient than current designs–and wants to pursue further research partnerships through IPEEC.

The International Panel on Climate Change reported in 2007 that the world could reduce projected greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector by 30 percent by 2030 while producing a net economic benefit. Among the set of initial tasks agreed upon by the IPEEC partners is the establishment of a Sustainable Buildings Network (SBN) to promote efficiency gains in residential, commercial and industrial buildings and improved methods for measuring and verifying progress toward domestic energy efficiency goals.

For more, view the DOE press release.