Energy Efficiency Proves Unattractive for Policy Makers in Europe

An interesting article in the New York Timess about energy efficiency policy in the EU. The European Commission has declined to endorse a motion passed last month by the European Parliament that would make a 20 percent improvement in energy efficiency by 2020 legally binding, but has approved a package of two loans worth €1 billion that is aimed at helping China use more renewable sources and increase energy efficiency.
Why?

The unit cost of reducing a ton of CO2 in Europe can be up to 30 times higher than in China.

Philippe Maystadt, president of the European Investment Bank
and

We simply don’t see the same levels of ambition for energy efficiency in Europe as does China.

Luigi Meli, the director general of the European Committee of Domestic Equipment Manufacturers, an industry group

Meli also states that Europe could improve its own levels of efficiency and thereby improve its energy security: replacing old appliances, insulating buildings and windows, installing new lighting and using power plants that generated both electricity and heat. In particular, Meli bemoaned a call by the European Commission to invest €1 trillion in projects to build new grids and pipelines during the next decade while setting aside a relatively meager sum, about €150 million, for energy efficiency. Europe would save the same amount of money it would take to build 15 natural gas pipelines by reaching its energy efficiency target of 20 percent.