In this paper, we conduct a cross-country analysis of energy consumption and energy efficiency for the dairy industry in four European countries. Changes in energy efficiency were monitored in two different ways. One way is to look at the energy use by tonne of milk processed by dairies (EE Ip 1). Another way is by comparing the actual energy use with the energy that would have been used if no changes in energy efficiency would have taken place (EE Ip 2). A characteristic of EE Ip 2 is that it corrects for differences in product mix among countries and in time. We found that changes in production mix are important in three of the four countries studied and that EE Ip 2 should be preferred when comparing levels of energy efficiency among countries or when there are significant changes in product mix. Once changes in product mix have been taken into account, our results show that France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have reduced their values in EE Ip 2, respectively by -0.4%, -2.1%, -1.2% and -3.8% per annum. The results also show that the British, German and Dutch dairy industries have converged towards similar (lower) values in their energy efficiency indicators and that the French dairy industry would save 30% if were to converge to similar values of EE Ip as the ones obtained for Germany or the United Kingdom.@en

This article develops indicators to monitor energy efficiency developments in the food and tobacco industry based on physical production data at the firm level provided by the statistics office of the Netherlands in a confidential basis. We measure energy efficiency by using an energy efficiency indicator which is the aggregate specific energy consumption. Our results show that the food and tobacco industry has improved their energy efficiency indicator in primary terms by about 1% per year (uncertainty range between 0.9 and 1.3). In terms of final energy, there has been a decrease on the indicator for final demand of fuels of about 1.8% p.a. while there has been no improvement in the indicator for final demand of electricity. The development in energy efficiency is coherent with the reported implementation rate of energy conservation projects. We conclude that the type and the quality of the data compiled by Statistics Netherlands for the food sector is sufficient to develop indicators as required by energy and climate policy.@en

Using data at the three-digit level for the Dutch manufacturing industry, the performance of the sector was analyzed with respect to its energy intensity, value added, value of production, and energy costs, e.g., petroleum products. Energy consumption increased by 30% between 1988 and 1999 while there was no decrease on energy intensity. Structural changes played a minor role and intensity effects added further energy requirements to those induced by output growth. The results study highlight the need for policy-makers and scientists to increase their attention to the non-energy intensive sector and encourage industries in these sectors to adopt energy-efficient technologies and management practices. The non-energy intensive sector should be considered a key target area for reduction of CO2 emissions. The low energy costs within the non-energy intensive sector have important implications for energy policy instruments. Barriers that are preventing the adoption of energy efficient technologies and management practices in the non-energy intensive sector need to be identified and understood.@en

Estimating CO2 emissions resulting from the non-energy use of fossil fuels is not straightforward, because part of the carbon is released quickly as CO2 whereas another part is first embodied in organic chemicals. To contribute to a more accurate non-energy use CO2 emission accounting, the Non-energy use Emission Accounting Tables (NEAT) model has been developed, which is in this paper applied to the Netherlands for the time period 1993-1999. For this period, we estimate the total non-energy use in CO2 equivalents in the Netherlands to vary between 26.1 and 30.2 Mt CO2. Of this total, 4.6-6.6 Mt CO2 is emitted in industrial processes and during product use. The remainder is stored, resulting in an overall storage fraction of approximately 80%. Given the uncertainties involved, we cannot distinguish clear trends for the years of study. We show that the definition of non-energy use has a significant effect on the calculated storage fractions. The carbon storage according to the Dutch national greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventory is 5-9 Mt CO2 lower compared to the NEAT result. As a result, total fossil CO2 emissions (including those from fossil fuel combustion) according to the national inventory are higher by the same amount, which is 3-5% of the total Dutch emissions. The difference is among other things caused by difficulties associated with the direct use of non-energy use figures from the Dutch energy statistics for CO2 emission accounting. We recommend improving the Dutch GHG emission inventory making use of the results of this study.@en

To contribute to a more accurate accounting of CO2 emissions originating from the non-energy use of fossil fuels, the non-energy use emission accounting tables (NEAT) model has been developed. The model tracks the final fate of the carbon embodied in this non-energy use by means of a carbon flow analysis for the relevant sectors. The model generates estimates for total non-energy use, carbon storage in synthetic organic chemicals and CO2 emissions resulting from non-energy use that are independent from energy statistics. This paper describes the basic methodology of the NEAT model. It is shown that the results obtained with the model can be used as an important addition to and crosscheck for the non-energy use emission accounting in official greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventories prepared according to the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The model can help to identify which definitions of non-energy use are applied in the energy statistics employed in national emission inventories and can help to improve national inventory methodologies based on this insight.@en

In this paper, we have used energy and physical production data to develop energy efficiency indicators for the meat industry of four European countries for the last 15 years. Our results show a significant increase in the energy use per tonne of product in all countries (between 14% and 48%). In order to understand the drivers behind the trends, factors such as the share of frozen products, the share of cut-up products and increasing food hygiene measures are analysed. We find that strong hygiene regulations can explain between one and two-thirds of the increase while the role of increasing shares of frozen and cut fresh meat it is found to be of no significance.@en

Policies aimed at supporting the bio-based economy have so far centered on biomass use for electricity and fuels. But using biomass for the production of materials offers higher greenhouse gas savings than bioenergy per kg feedstock as well as per hectare. This has received comparatively little attention from policy-makers; analyses of either existing or potential policy measures are almost entirely missing in this field. This paper by Barbara Hermann, M Carus, M Patel and K Blok, provides an overview of policy measures which are currently in place and investigates how they affect market penetration of biomaterials.@en