Developing a Products Prioritization Tool for Energy Efficiency Standards Improvements in China.

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of household appliances, lighting and other residential and commercial equipment. Since 1989, China has developed and implemented over 40 energy efficiency (EE) standards and over 20 mandatory energy labels for a wide range of domestic, commercial and selected industrial equipment. However, there are tremendous opportunities to capture additional savings through more stringent energy efficiency policies for major energy-consuming appliances. To assess the stringency of EE standards, this paper developed an integrated products prioritization tool for energy efficiency standards improvements that comprises three component analyses: (1) analysis of market data, (2) quantification of energy savings potential, and (3) benchmarking China's EE standards to those of peer economies around the world. This integrated approach led to three independent but complementary studies, and an comprehensive analysis that resulted in a coherent set of policy recommendations on what products to prioritize for China's energy efficiency standards revisions, in order to maximize their energy savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]