IEA 10th Energy Efficiency Conference
In June 2025, CEC Chair, Melanie Chen attended this conference, co-hosted by the EU Commissioner for Energy and Housing in Brussels and took part in the Roundtable “Energy Efficiency for Industrial Competitiveness” and gave the Caribbean perspective.
The conference was well attended by representatives from over 100 countries at the Ministerial, Global CEO and senior decision maker levels. Some key takeaways are:
- Energy efficiency (EE) is the “first fuel”
- Doubling EE and tripling renewables globally results in CO2 emissions reduction of 36% and 12%
- EE is a global focus with buildings (heating, AC and lighting) making the most significant part of energy consumption and therefore potential savings
- the ROW is focused and organised on implementing EE
- Progress is happening but needs to accelerate. For example, inverter or variable drive AC makes the most impact and this is the status of completion of change:
| EU | 100% | Brazil | 55% |
| Japan | 100% | Mexico | 45% |
| China | 97% | US | 10% |
| India | 70% |
CEC’s strong view is that real energy security will not come from distant, high-cost solutions—it starts with what we can deploy now. While discourse often focuses on the longer term, we need to focus on what we can implement in the short term. The clearest first step is energy efficiency in tandem with the rollout of solar and wind renewable energy. The region is behind but we can effect change quickly by using ESCOs to scale up and capture the impact of EE.
With credit guarantees from dev banks and regional financing, ESCOs can bridge the technical and investment gap and deliver results at scale. The Caribbean cannot control the geopolitical environment that effects energy prices but it can take more control of its destiny by simply being energy efficient.
