Review of the Implementation of the OSCE Commitments in the Field of Energy Efficiency (Energy Security and Cimate Change Mitigation Requires more Energy Efficiency)
An advance copy of this review was presented during the 19th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum in Prague on 14-16 September. This version takes into account remarks and suggestions emerged on that occasion.
The purpose of this report is to review the implementation of the OSCE commitments in the field of energy efficiency, which in this paper is taken in the broader sense of energy saving, also encompassing energy conservation.
The review comprises the following main themes:
Energy intensity trends and developments in the OSCE area
Policies and strategies on energy efficiency in the OSCE region
Energy efficiency contribution to energy security and climate change mitigation in the region
The review describes: 1) best practices on energy efficiency policies in countries participating in the UNECE project Financing Energy Efficiency Investments for Climate Change Mitigation (FEEI); 2) barriers to energy efficiency and measures to overcome them in selected countries from the FEEI participating countries; and 3) considerations on the energy efficiency contribution to energy security and climate change mitigation in the region
The report groups the 56 OSCE participating States into four clusters: North America, Western Europe, Central & Eastern Europe, and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA). The criteria behind this segmentation are geographic contiguity and stage of economic development.

19th OSCE ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM
“Promotion of common actions and co-operation in the OSCE area in the fields of development of sustainable energy and transport”
Prague, 14-16 September 2011
 20th Session of the UNECE COMMITTEE ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
“Securing Affordable and Sustainable Energy”
Geneva, 16-18 November 2011
Energy security and climate change mitigation require improved efficiency of energy consumption.As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the secretariat of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the secretariat of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) signed in 2004, the UNECE supports the review of implementation of OSCE commitments in the economic and environmental dimension, including in the field of energy, in accordance with its expertise and resource availability.