But appliance energy efficiency tends to be invisible, so people don’t usually hear much about it. There isn’t a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of a more efficient appliance. And as a concept, it’s harder to wrap your head around than the solar panels or electric vehicles you might see in your neighborhood every day.

I often say that appliance energy efficiency policy is like the bonds in your retirement account. Bonds have historically provided a safe, steady return that’s really critical over time, particularly if the stock market fluctuates. In the climate field, appliance efficiency policy provides that same safe and steady return. There are higher-risk, higher-reward solutions, of course, and they tend to generate a lot more buzz, but they’re more uncertain.

Take carbon sequestration. We’re absolutely going to need carbon sequestration to hit climate targets, but we don’t really know how to do it at scale yet. Right now, we need smart venture capitalists investing in the right tech, but we don’t know when a viable solution will be ready.

It’s the same story for industrial decarbonization, which is an incredibly complex challenge. Right now, governments aren’t providing enough incentives for industry to actually clean itself up. But beyond that, there are a lot of problems inherent in the materials and processes involved.

Look at cement, which we basically can’t build anything without. Making cement is incredibly carbon-intensive—the average US plant emits three-quarters of a ton of CO₂ for every ton of cement it produces. Three-quarters of a ton! So we absolutely need to address this, but for now, there’s no easy solution. It’s still a technology challenge, a business model challenge, and a policy challenge.

Now compare this to appliance efficiency, which has already been successfully deployed around the world. We have the tech, the tools, and the policies we need to scale it up more. We know it works.

And the reason it works is that appliances use so much energy, cumulatively. Just by using efficient light bulbs or a best-in-class refrigerator, individuals can make a difference; it’s one of the ways everyone can have a positive impact on the climate. But the appliances people can buy are only as good as the appliance policies in their country. If their government is lagging on this issue, as many are, they may not even have the option to choose climate-friendly models. Stores might not stock them at all.

It’s also important to understand that appliance efficiency is really critical to enabling other climate solutions. As we continue to transition the grid to renewable energy and electrify transportation and buildings, we simply won’t have enough capacity to power all these things unless they’re very efficient. If you want to actually achieve a transition to electric vehicles, you’ll need grid space for charging them. So that grid space can’t all be going to air conditioners and refrigerators, right? There’s simply a limit to how big a power grid we can build.

Another important benefit of appliance efficiency policy is that it’s much easier and cheaper than most mitigation solutions. It ultimately boils down to a few fairly simple, low-cost actions. The first is requiring that all appliances sold in a given place meet a minimum efficiency standard; the second is labeling them so consumers understand how well different models perform. Governments can do a lot more, of course, but fundamentally, that’s what it comes down to.

And implementing these two things isn’t rocket science, especially because there are already so many efficient appliances out there today, and so many examples of strong policies that governments can borrow from.

I should clarify that when CLASP talks about appliances, we’re not only referring to domestic appliances. We work broadly across demand-side energy reduction, which also encompasses things like industrial motors. Products like these consume a massive amount of energy, so they also need strong efficiency regulations.

So for all these reasons, it’s important to implement appliance efficiency policy while you figure out the more difficult climate solutions. In a noisy world, it’s a very practical, focused, implementable, measurable, and meaningful thing to do.

Wesseler: You said some countries are already seeing big emissions reductions from appliance efficiency policy. Where is that happening? Who are the leaders?

Egan: Well, India is an incredible success story. Last year, their appliance efficiency policies and LED lighting promotion programs accounted for 60% of the emissions reductions from energy efficiency in the whole country.

And then historically, the top three countries in terms of emissions reductions from appliance policy have been the US, the EU, and China.

The US has been a really good example up to now, although the current administration is changing course. But appliance policies have prevented billions of tons of CO₂ emissions in the US. They also cut utility bills by $63 billion in 2015 alone. That’s a lot of money back in consumers’ pockets just because the devices they use are more efficient.

And in China, appliance efficiency policies reduce CO₂ emissions by about 100 million tons every year. In the EU, ecodesign and labeling programs cut more than 300 million tons of CO₂ in 2019.

But really, anywhere in the world that has appliance policy, the numbers are massive in terms of how much emissions are being prevented, how much energy is being saved, and how much customers are saving on their utility bills.

One way to think about mitigation from appliance efficiency policy is that when you set these policies, you start by getting data on the energy consumption of all the products in the market. You then make a distribution curve of the lowest-energy-consuming products, the medium-consuming products, all the way up to the highest. To set a standard, you just literally add in a line cutting out a chunk of that distribution curve.

This can eliminate a sizable fraction of the products on the market, which shifts that market toward more energy-efficient products. It has a real, quantifiable effect on what consumers buy and, as a result, how much energy they use.

Compare this with carbon credits, where there are fears of greenwashing and you hear a lot of questions like, “Is it measurable? Is it verifiable?”

Well, appliance efficiency policy is measurable and verifiable. In the complicated world of policymaking, where it’s so hard to know exactly what policies achieve, this is not complicated. That’s one of the great advantages of the work we do.

If we’re going to prevent the worst consequences of climate change, we don’t have time to waste. Every swing of the bat has to matter, and appliance efficiency policy is one hell of a swing.

Interview edited and condensed.