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Abstract
Energy-efficiency laws and policies have great ability to improve economic wellbeing and human health, while reducing the adverse effects of energy use on climate and the environment generally. New Zealand, like many countries, has a legal framework for energy-efficiency measures, including a specialist agency, a process for strategic planning and the making of regulations. This framework has certain strengths, but shows deficiencies in its use of strategies. Its use of regulation for labelling and minimum energy performance standards is similar to that of a number of other countries. In this article, New Zealand law on energy efficiency is compared with that of California and Germany. Insights from social sciences and behavioural economics have considerable promise in the design of energy-efficiency measures. However, a clear legal framework is necessary to put energy efficiency at the heart of energy policy, and to pursue it with conventional legal regulatory measures.
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Notes on contributors
Marcel Eusterfeldhaus
Marcel Eusterfeldhaus is a doctoral candidate at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany who finished the LLM programme under the supervision of Professor Barton at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. [email protected]
Barry Barton
Barry Barton is a Professor of Law in the University of Waikato. This research is part of the interdisciplinary Energy Cultures programme, funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. The authors can be contacted by e-mail at, respectively, [email protected].