Interfax: Medvedev: energy efficiency has improved, but not due to government efforts

MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) – The amount of energy Russia consumes per unit of GDP has declined since 2000, but not due to the introduction of new technologies or the efforts of local authorities and companies, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.

“In the past 13 years the trend in energy use per unit of GDP has been favorable, but not because we worked well. This is totally unconnected with new equipment or almost unconnected. This is connected with structural shifts that took place in the economy in those years. This cannot possibly gratify us,” Medvedev said at a meeting of the Presidential Council for Economic Modernization and Innovative Development on Friday.

Those organizations that rely on financing from the budget continue to have high energy costs, he said. In order to raise energy efficiency in the economy, Medvedev proposes including an energy efficiency indicator for use in appraising the performance of state programs. The priority should be on actually replacing old equipment with state-of-the-art equipment.

Medvedev also urged business to work more intensively to improve energy efficiency, since the government cannot do it all.