Predicting the quantifiable impacts of ISO 50001 on climate change mitigation
The ISO 50001-Energy management standard provides a continual improvement framework for organizations to reduce their energy consumption, which in the industrial and commercial (service) sectors, accounts for nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing this energy consumption will be critical for countries to achieve their national greenhouse gas reduction commitments. Several national policies already support ISO 50001; however, there is no transparent, consistent process to estimate the potential impacts of its implementation. This paper presents the ISO 50001 Impacts Methodology, an internationally-developed methodology to calculate these impacts at a national, regional, or global scale suitable for use by policymakers. The recently-formed ISO 50001 Global Impacts Research Network provides a forum for policymakers to refine and encourage use of the methodology. Using this methodology, a scenario with 50% of projected global industrial and service sector energy consumption under ISO 50001 management by 2030 would generate cumulative primary energy savings of approximately 105 EJ, cost savings of nearly US $700 billion (discounted to 2016 net present value), and 6500 million metric tons (Mt) of avoided CO 2 emissions. The avoided annual CO 2 emissions in 2030 alone are equivalent to removing 210 million passenger vehicles from the road.