ABSTRACT
Global energy consumption has closely tracked GDP since the industrial revolution. As governments have been made more forcibly aware of the triple threat of energy security, resource depletion and climatic instability, they have started to formulate policies to make energy usage more sustainable, without compromising economic growth. A minority of states, including Germany, Japan and certain US states, have been relatively proactive in developing policies for energy efficiency and renewables. Policies to promote the blending of biofuels into petrol and diesel supplies and to enable biogas to be injected into the gas grid will also progressively decarbonise those energy vectors too. The UK government's Department of Energy and Climate Change is developing specific strategies for energy efficiency A2 and renewable energy, A3 in the latter case supported by a so-called roadmap.
