The International Energy Agency (IEA) noted that many major policies, spending commitments and public campaigns have been launched to improve energy efficiency, albeit not enough to meet climate change targets at the moment.

Global investments in energy efficiency – such as building renovations, public transport and electric car infrastructure – reached $560bn in 2022, an increase of 16 per cent on 2021, according to the IEA’s latest market report, Energy Efficiency 2022.

Preliminary data indicates that in 2022 the global economy used energy 2 per cent more efficiently than it did in 2021, a rate of improvement almost four times that of the past two years, and almost double the rate of the past five years.

If the current rate of progress can be built upon further in the coming years, then 2022 could mark “a vital turning point for efficiency”, the report said, which is one of the key areas for international efforts to reach net zero emissions by 2050...