States, Cities, and Countries

Efforts to advance clean energy goals continued to lag following the global pandemic. Annual savings from ratepayer-funded electric efficiency programs dipped slightly lower (2.43%) in 2021 compared to 2020. Savings totaled approximately 26 million megawatt-hours, enough to power almost 2.4 million homes for a year.

California was an energy efficiency leader thanks to its adoption of advanced clean energy building codes, stringent vehicle emissions standards, and industry-leading appliance standards. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have adopted California’s low-emissions vehicle regulations. This most improved state in 2021 was Maine, which signed laws to promote electrification and decarbonization for affordable housing, adopted energy- and water-saving standards for more than 15 products, and continues to invest in weatherization and heat pump incentive programs. The state has also developed a Clean Transportation Roadmap to equitably advance electric vehicle adoption. State-driven appliance standards also remained extremely important: state standards have been critical to helping consumers save on utility bills and spurring adoption of stronger national standards. Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington have passed efficiency standards for up to 17 types of products, and New York is expected to adopt appliance standards through a rulemaking process by the end of 2022.1

A number of U.S. cities also lead in their commitment to energy efficiency and renewable energy. According to the ACEEE City Clean Energy Scorecard, the top performer in 2021 was San Francisco, followed by Seattle, Washington, Minneapolis, Boston, New York City, Denver, Los Angeles, San Jose, Austin, and Oakland. Between May 2, 2020, and July 1, 2021, the cities took at least 177 new actions to advance clean energy. While the COVID-19 pandemic led many cities to delay or modify work they had planned for 2020, cities increased their clean energy work in late 2020 and early 2021. Rankings were based on local government operations, community-wide initiatives, buildings policies, commitment to racial and social equity, energy and water utilities programs, and transportation policies.2

The ACEEE International Scorecard scores and ranks the energy efficiency deployments of the 25 top energy-consuming countries in the world, which collectively represent 82% of all energy consumption and over 80% of the world’s GDP in 2014, on the basis of 36 policy and performance metrics.

France led with an overall score of 74.5 out of 100 possible points, and also earned the top spot in the transportation category. The remaining top five were the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy. No country achieved a perfect score, and the average score declined slightly from 2018, indicating that countries have achieved limited progress in the past few years. Energy efficiency is an important tool to address climate change and reduce energy consumption. Countries will need to step up their efforts to make progress on their climate goals.3