The coming decade will for the first time see the establishment of substantive sustainable product policies affecting all major appliances and many commercial products in most, if not all, trading zones of the world. Unfortunately the policy makers charged with the development and implementation of these sustainable product strategies have difficulty indentifying the potential performance of products already in (or soon to be available in) the global marketplace; the likely impact various policy options may have on these products; and how any resultant outcomes will compare with actions taken and outcomes achieved elsewhere. Hence these policy makers are often forced to make decisions with major environmental and economic impacts based on fragmented and incomplete data.

The countries participating in the IEA 4E Implementing Agreement have identified this knowledge shortfall and have initiated the Mapping and Benchmarking Annex as a first step to developing credible, reliable and timely information for sustainable product policy making decisions. To read the full strategy for the Annex click here or click here to view the Annex work plans.

The questions the Annex seeks to answer are:

• What are the differences in the performance of products sold in the various regions of the world?
• What are the primary causes of these differences (policy, culture, etc)?
• What does this tell us about the potential for national, regional and global improvement in the performance of products, and the potential mechanisms that policy makers may engage to realise this potential?

To answer these questions the Mapping and Benchmarking Annex will:

1. Mapping: provide an overview of the energy efficiency performance of certain electrical end-use equipment (or energy using products) in several countries and/or regional areas and a brief summary of the main policy measures regarding energy efficiency of products in those areas;
2. Benchmarking: compare average and best performance of products put on the market in different countries and/or regional areas; analyse variations between different markets; share best practices and lessons learnt by, for example, highlighting potential for further improvement of energy efficiency levels globally.

Phases

To prove the usefulness of the Annex outcomes in policy development before the commitment of extensive resources, a two phase implementation programme is being adopted;

• the first phase will concentrate on a limited product range with clearly accessible data sources and limited geographical and stakeholder groupings,
• this will be followed by an expansion to a second phase that will encompass more product groups with potentially wider geographical coverage and stakeholder engagement.

It is envisaged that Phase 1 will be completed within six months and provide meaningful results to enable movement to Phase 2 on approval by the Implementing Agreement Exco.

Initial product coverage

Ten prioritised product categories have been selected, in agreement with the ExCo, to be addressed during Phase 1 and the early stages of Phase 2 implementation of the Annex:

Phase 1

• Domestic cold appliances
• Televisions
• Domestic laundry appliances
• Domestic air conditioners
• Laptop computers

Phase 2

• Integrated home networks

• Water heaters
• Domestic lighting
• Computer display
• AC motors