The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has released its Energy Efficiency Scorecard 2025, which ranks the 25 highest energy‑consuming countries based on their progress in energy efficiency policies and performance. This report is a leading global benchmark, offering a comprehensive overview of the advancement of energy efficiency, both in reducing energy intensity and in implementing supportive policies and regulations across the target countries. It also establishes an international ranking of energy efficiency efforts.
This sixth edition assesses 25 countries that together account for 83% of global energy consumption, evaluating their performance across 38 metrics. Since the previous 2022 Energy Efficiency Scorecard, countries have made progress in reducing energy intensity and in introducing industrial decarbonisation policies in the buildings and industrial sectors. Nevertheless, the potential for substantial improvement remains significant.
For the second consecutive edition, France ranks first among the 25 countries analysed, achieving a score of 85.5 out of 100. France secured its leading position with the highest scores in the industry and transport sectors, while Germany stands out for its strong national efforts and top performance in the buildings category. Completing the top five are Germany, the UK, Italy, and China, with Spain sharing fifth place.
Many European countries, including the UK, Germany, Italy, and France, recorded lower industrial energy intensity, while several Asian countries—such as China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia—showed greater effectiveness in reducing energy intensity in the agricultural sector.
What Is the ACEEE International Energy Efficiency Scorecard?
To create its Energy Efficiency Scorecard and determine the ranking, ACEEE analysts evaluated each country’s progress across four sectors: buildings, industry, transportation, and national efforts, which include national energy efficiency targets and policies. Each country could earn up to 25 points in each sector, for a maximum total of 100. The scorecard assigns greater weight to energy efficiency policies than to energy efficiency performance. Countries could receive up to 59 points for implementing effective policies and up to 41 points for improving performance in reducing energy intensity through energy efficiency measures. This weighting reflects the higher availability and consistency of policy data compared with performance data. Performance metrics were more difficult to obtain, as not all countries report data on a regular basis. The analysis relied on published data and on input from external experts to fill remaining data gaps.
2025 Global Rankings: Top Performers and Notable Shifts
France Leads for the Second Consecutive Edition
As mentioned earlier, France leads the ranking for the second consecutive edition, scoring 85.5 points thanks to its strong performance in industrial energy efficiency (24 points), transportation (17.5 points), and high positioning in the buildings and national efforts categories. Another factor reinforcing France’s energy efficiency ranking is its strong commitment to implementing policies that advance energy efficiency nationally and across all sectors, with 57.5 points earned out of a possible 59.
France’s excellent performance in the industrial sector is based on several pillars, including the highest score for industrial energy intensity, voluntary energy performance agreements with manufacturers, policies encouraging energy management, investment in manufacturing R&D, and clear targets for industrial decarbonisation. In the national efforts category, France’s energy intensity reduction strategies are supported by high per‑capita spending on energy efficiency and related R&D, the introduction of effective energy‑saving goals, and sustained investment through tax credits and loan programmes.
Germany, UK, and Italy: the European powerhouses
Second place in the Energy Efficiency Scorecard 2026 is taken by Germany, which earned 82 points and moved up one position, achieving a positive gain of +10.5 points compared with the previous edition. In the country comparison, Germany was the top performer in the national efforts and buildings categories. Its high score in national efforts reflects strong results in reducing energy intensity across all sectors, high per‑capita spending on energy efficiency, the establishment of clear energy‑saving goals, and the implementation of measures supporting electric power plant generation.
The UK and Italy follow in third and fourth place with scores of 79.5 and 77.5 respectively. The UK achieved the best result in industrial energy efficiency with a score of 24, while Italy secured a position in the top 10 thanks to strong results in industrial energy efficiency and the buildings sector. However, Italy shows some weaknesses in national efforts and transport metrics, indicating significant room for improvement.
The high rankings of Germany, the UK, and Italy—together with leading country France—are also influenced by the progress these nations have made towards meeting the ambitious targets set by the European Green Deal and the Energy Efficiency Directive.
China’s remarkable rise to fifth place
China jumped from 9th to 5th position from the previous Energy Efficiency Scorecard report with 72,5 score, an increase of 26%. China’s score is positively affected by strong overall results in the transportation chapter, primarily due to notable progress in electric vehicle (EV) sales – (48% of passenger vehicles sold in 2024 were electric) – and widespread public transit use. It also scored highly in the buildings chapter due to low energy intensity from commercial buildings and mandatory retrofit policies applied to urban buildings. Since the 2022 Scorecard, China has also expanded its energy efficiency tax credit and loan programs to cover more sectors, made voluntary agreements with manufacturers and offered financial incentives to promote industrial energy efficiency, and passed more stringent standards for industrial motors.
The United States: gains overshadowed by global competition
How does the US rank globally on energy efficiency? Compared with European countries, the United States progresses at a slower pace. Although the US recorded an increase of 3 points compared with the previous report, it fell one place in the ranking, now standing in 11th position with a total score of 57, behind South Korea, Poland, Japan and Taiwan, which follow the top five countries. The US score is affected by weak performance in the transportation category, where it earned only 6 out of 25 points, and by shortcomings in the industrial sector, which requires stronger efforts in setting industrial decarbonisation targets, mandating plant energy managers, introducing mandatory energy audits, and adopting policies that encourage energy management.
In terms of national efforts, the United States performed well thanks to its flagship measure—the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the country’s largest-ever investment in clean energy and climate action. It provides financial incentives for retrofitting buildings, decarbonising industry and purchasing electric vehicles. However, in building energy efficiency policy, the US did not achieve full points because commercial and residential building codes are adopted at state and local levels, despite the country having some of the world’s most advanced model energy codes.
The European Green Deal’s impact on energy efficiency
The European Union plays a pivotal role in driving energy efficiency improvements across all EU countries. The EU has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, with the long‑term aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. To guide member states towards these ambitious targets, the EU has established a robust policy and regulatory framework. This includes the European Green Deal, which requires member states to submit integrated climate and energy plans combining energy efficiency with renewable energy, and the 2023 Energy Efficiency Directive, which directly supports energy efficiency measures and promotes the “energy efficiency first” principle to maximise energy savings across all sectors.
France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain are current EU member states, while the United Kingdom is a former member. All six countries ranked within the top 10 of the International Energy Efficiency Scorecard, reflecting the EU’s strong emphasis on coordinated climate and energy policy.
Industry chapter: electrification and decarbonization as growth drivers
Industrial electrification: the lowest-cost path to decarbonization
In the industrial sector, industrial electrification plays a crucial role in decarbonising processes. The report highlights that electrification is often the lowest‑cost and most efficient measure for decarbonising industrial process heat. In terms of scoring methodology, the report introduced several new measures to more accurately capture the evolving landscape of industrial energy‑efficiency best practices. National targets for industrial decarbonisation—including measures aligned with net‑zero or carbon‑neutral goals—earned 2 points, as did electrification objectives. Final industrial energy consumption supplied by electricity, waste heat and/or biofuels was awarded a maximum of 2 points.
Full scores were common across the top five countries for energy‑intensity reduction goals, mandatory energy‑management system policies, and requirements for energy managers. Where countries fell short was in the share of final industrial energy consumption sourced from alternatives to fossil fuels. This metric compares countries by the percentage of final energy consumption supplied by electricity, waste heat or biofuels. Higher consumption of these sources indicates lower reliance on fossil‑fuel technologies for process heat and results in a more efficient, resilient, reliable and future‑proof manufacturing sector. This metric also captures combined heat and power (CHP), whose installed capacity was assessed in previous editions. In this Scorecard, 2 points were awarded for more than 50% of final energy consumption from these alternative sources, 1.5 points for more than 40%, and 1 point for more than 30%. Based on this methodology, only Taiwan among the top five achieved full points, with more than half of its final industrial energy consumption supplied by alternative sources.
Although light industries (such as food, beverages, chemicals, and pulp and paper) already have electrification and other fossil‑fuel‑alternative solutions ready for deployment, technology options are rapidly advancing for harder‑to‑abate manufacturing subsectors—waste‑heat recovery systems being one of them—indicating substantial room for improvement in this field.
Best practices: Taiwan, Germany, and France
The top five ranking in the industrial energy efficiency sector sees France sharing the podium with the UK (24 points), closely followed by Italy and Taiwan (23.5) and Germany (23). When examining the best practices implemented by these countries, it is worth highlighting the strong examples set by Taiwan, Germany and France.
Taiwan was able to shift from seventh to third place thanks to a deeply integrated decarbonisation strategy grounded in public–private cooperation and smart manufacturing. To mitigate the impact of rising electricity costs for industrial users, the Taiwanese government provides incentives for reducing energy consumption and offers technology‑investment deductions covering 20–50% of improvement costs. In addition, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs works closely with ESCOs to support companies in implementing energy‑efficiency plans, and the country offers incentives for waste‑heat and waste‑cold recovery.
Germany has remained at or near the top of the International Scorecard’s industrial section for several consecutive editions. Its initiatives include Energy Efficiency Networks, in which groups of 10–15 peer companies exchange best practices and set joint goals (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy 2025). Germany also offers substantial financial incentives through grants and low‑interest loans for SMEs to acquire efficient technologies—including electric equipment and waste‑heat recovery solutions. German industrial companies are required to meet specific energy‑efficiency targets under national climate regulations.
National spending on energy efficiency: who invests the most?
National spending levels, as ranked in the Energy Efficiency Scorecard 2026, indicate how strongly countries prioritise energy efficiency through their investments. Germany holds first place, with USD 13.1 billion in annual government spending on energy efficiency, followed by Spain at USD 10.5 billion, Japan at USD 6.5 billion, Turkey at USD 5.6 billion, and Italy at USD 3.8 billion.
When considering per‑capita spending, Spain leads with USD 216 per person, followed by Germany and the United States. Italy ranks seventh, with USD 63 per capita.
Spending on R&D for energy efficiency, based on 2023 data, reached USD 15.3 per capita in Canada, placing it first. It is followed by Spain and France (USD 8.3), the United States (USD 8), and the United Kingdom (USD 4.5).
Key recommendations for policymakers
The report showing how energy‑efficiency performance and policies are progressing across major countries worldwide highlights encouraging advances in several sectors, with all nations demonstrating meaningful improvements in some areas and shortcomings in others. Across the board, substantial opportunities remain for further progress, and ACEEE recommends the following actions for national policymakers:
- Reduce energy intensity nationally and across specific sectors, drawing on examples and best practices from countries excelling in those fields. For instance, agricultural energy intensity can be reduced by learning from several Asian countries that primarily cultivate low‑energy‑input crops and employ precision‑agriculture techniques, resulting in lower energy consumption.
- Invest in programmes, research and infrastructure that promote energy efficiency. Ensuring global access to affordable and sustainable energy will require higher levels of investment in energy‑efficiency programmes, R&D, and infrastructure supporting low‑carbon transportation. Spain provides a strong example, with the national government pledging €86 billion (USD 94 billion) for energy‑efficiency investments between 2021 and 2030. Canada leads in per‑capita energy‑efficiency R&D expenditure, while the United States invested around 20% of industrial GDP in industrial R&D in 2024.
- Encourage energy‑demand reduction and behavioural change to further curb energy consumption. While reducing energy intensity is essential, it is not sufficient on its own for achieving national net‑zero targets. Lowering peak energy demand can enhance the resilience and reliability of electrical systems. Behavioral changes among citizens and businesses can support these goals as they adjust their habits to reduce energy use.
Incremental progress is not enough
The 2025 Energy Efficiency Scorecard highlights meaningful efforts by many countries—particularly the leaders—to advance energy efficiency. However, the global average improvement is still far from sufficient to align with international climate goals. A clear gap remains between national pledges and concrete action. Scaling up energy‑efficiency measures is essential not only for climate mitigation but also for reducing energy bills, improving competitiveness, enhancing energy security and strengthening industrial resilience.
Closing this gap requires decisive policies supported by the rapid deployment of proven technologies. In this context, Exergy is ready to support countries and industries in accelerating their energy‑efficiency and decarbonisation pathways. With a broad portfolio ranging from ORC systems for waste‑heat recovery to large‑scale heat pumps for process‑heat electrification, Exergy provides high‑performance solutions that directly reduce energy intensity and emissions.
If your organisation is looking to accelerate its energy‑efficiency journey or explore tailored decarbonisation solutions, Exergy’s team is ready to support you. Reach out today to discuss how we can help transform your energy performance.
