COP19 (16/11/13) – James Wilde, Managing Director, Innovation & Policy, The Carbon Trust talks about his work helping businesses to overcome the barriers to energy efficiency.

He says that UK companies alone have saved over £3.6 billion by becoming more energy efficient.

In order to help businesses overcome the barriers to energy efficiency, the Carbon Trust provides businesses with advice, confidence and finance.

He says that the Carbon Trust has been delivering these opportunities to new economies, such as Mexico and South Africa. He says it is an effective way of incentivising businesses to unlock energy efficiency in their companies.

In addition to working with businesses, Wilde says that the Carbon Trust has also been working with governments to design equivalent programmes to the Carbon Trust. In Mexico, for example, they have designed a programme that focusses on SMEs.

He says that energy efficiency is a significant opportunity for climate change mitigation because it is the cheapest thing to do.

He says the barriers to energy efficiency are more behavioural – the trick is how to unlock it.