there are many clear benefits to improving energy efficiency including increased energy security a more sustainable environment improved quality of life and economic competitiveness however attempts to increase energy efficiency are undermined by inadequate national policy and legislative frameworks or a failure to implement them fully to overcome this inertia countries have developed ambitious but ineffective energy efficiency polices aimed at households and utilities there is clear evidence that energy efficiency measures can be cost effective for example starting in italy offered a tax deduction for energy efficiency investments in the residential sector subsequently increased to for some measures between and more than million applications were approved and households accessed around eur billion of investments at a cost of about eur billion in undiscounted forgone tax revenue