Review of EU product energy efficiency policies: What have we achieved in 40 years?

The improvement of energy efficiency of products is a key pillar of climate and energy strategy in the European Union (EU). The first EU product policies were adopted in the late 1970s, and they have evolved to become a coherent set of implementing measures under framework directives that harmonise and refine the regulatory process. After years of weak implementation, considerable progress in terms of scale and ambition has been achieved in the last decade. In 2020, product mandatory measures covered 50% of the EU total final energy consumption, leading to 46 Mtoe energy savings. This paper describes the available policy instruments to promote energy efficiency and remove the market barriers hindering the penetration of the best performing technologies. It offers a review of the progress made over these last 40 years of EU product policies, describing the Energy Labelling, the Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS), the Ecodesign Directive and the voluntary agreements (EU Ecolabel and Green Public Procurement). Moreover, it highlights the remaining challenges and provides policy recommendations to further exploit the EU potential to save energy from products.