According to ACEEE’s data, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Italy appears to be – together with Germany – the energy-intensive country that best stands out for energy efficiency.

Such evaluation is part of the program of the 4th International Energy Efficiency Scorecard: 25 countries were examinated among the most energy-intensive ones in the world, according to 36 parameters that evaluate energy efficiency policies.

The four categories of constructions, industry, transportation and progress taken into consideration could achieve a max score of 25 points and it clearly resulted that the 25 countries consume, overall, 78% of global energy making up 80% of global GDP. Scoring was partly done according to the strategies implemented but, first of all, the policies adopted: great importance was given to targets of energy saving and standards of energy efficiency for appliances, along with the attempt to reduce fuel consumption for vehicles.

Thus Italy achieves the first place with a score of 75.5 on 100, a little ahead of Germany; then follows France, UK and Japan. At the very bottom, with just 18 and 16.5 points respectively, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. In comparison with the previous report, dated back to 2016, there are some significant improvements such as Mexico, which passed from 17 to 54 points, Indonesia (+ 7.5 points) and The Netherlands (+ 5 points).

In particular, Italy stands out in buildings and industry. The RAEE (ENEA’s Annual Report on Energy Efficiency), presented in Rome on 19th June 2018, shows that from 2011 to 2017 there have been energy savings of about 2.5 billion of non-imported natural gas and oil and 19 million tons of CO2 less released in the atmosphere.

Such good results correspond to 52% of the goals set for 2020 by the National Energy Strategy and the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency. The gap is still big, but the ACEEE report states that there is a significant score for improvement, achievable by the 25 economic powers in order to save money and reduce greenhouse gas emission.