Energy sufficiency has gained attention as a way to limit and reduce total energy consumption of a household or a country overall. The project "Energiesuffizienz" funded by the German ministry for research has examined what energy sufficiency actually is, and what householders, household members but also manufacturers and local authorities could do to make electricity use in the home more sufficient. The paper "Energy sufficiency policy: an evolution of energy efficiency policy or radically new approaches?" focuses on the policy part of the project and is the first comprehensive analysis of an energy sufficiency policy.
How can policy support market actors in using the energy sufficiency options identified? Besides answering that questions, potential sufficiency options have been gathered and relevant barriers all market actors face have been analysed to derive recommendations for an effective policy package.
The paper also suggests that some instruments of the energy sufficiency package (such as energy taxation) may be used or adapted (such as progressive appliance efficiency standards) for the purpose of energy efficiency. Furthermore, as a result from the analysis, the authors Stefan Thomas, Johannes Thema, Michael Kopatz (Wuppertal Institute) and Lars-Arvid Brischke (ifeu) claim that new sufficiency approaches may be required and present examples.
The paper "Energy sufficiency policy: an evolution of energy efficiency policy or radically new approaches?" is part of the eceee summer study 2015 proceedings. It is available for download on the Wuppertal Institute's publication server.