(Energy) sufficiency

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) describes sufficiency as policies, measures, and daily practices that avoid the demand for energy, materials, water, and land while delivering human well-being for all within planetary boundaries.
Sufficiency provides infrastructure and legal frameworks to tailor demand to fundamental needs, making the most effective use of resources.

The négaWatt Association has been working on sufficiency for the past 20 years. Together with energy efficiency and renewable energy, sufficiency forms the basis of négaWatt’s energy transition pathway.
négaWatt has coordinated and participated in different European research projects relating to energy sufficiency, has taken part in the launch of the international expert network on sufficiency (ENOUGH), and is a leading member of the EU sufficiency policy coalition, promoting sufficiency policies at EU level.

Current activities and general material on sufficiency

négaWatt’s recent work on sufficiency has mostly taken form in the framework of the EU sufficiency coalition.
In the lead up to the EU elections, the Association has been driving the work on a sufficiency manifesto►, now signed by almost 100 EU organisations calling for the mainstreaming of sufficiency in EU policies by the next EU institutions.
Following the elections, négaWatt and its partners published a policy brief► Take action now : reduce resourceuse for a fairer, cleaner, and more resilient Europe, calling on Members of the EU Parliament to take action on the matter. Following this with concrete sectoral recommendations, partners published 10 policy proposals► for the upcoming mandate for a competitive and secure economy.
négaWatt had issued a briefing note on sufficiency► based on the 2017 edition of its scenario for France thoroughly analysing its potential in the different sectors. This work was then deepened in 2022, and in the CACTUS, CLEVER and Fulfill projects.

Fulfill (Fundamental Decarbonisation through sufficiency by Lifestyle Changes)

From 2022 to 2024, the negaWatt Association participated FULFILL, a Horizon 2020 research Project funded by the European Union.
Fullfill worked at the crossroad between environmental and social sciences to analyse sufficient lifestyles and sufficiency at different levels, from the individual to the EU, evaluate the potential and impact of sufficiency indicators and assumptions and, on the basis of a large technical and policy dialogue, propose policies to best deliver those impacts.
Link to the Fulfill website and major deliverables

CACTUS : energy sufficiency in the Central and Eastern European context

From 2020 to 2022, the negaWatt Association has coordinated the CACTUS project (Consolidating ambitious climate targets through end-use sufficiency) financed by the EUKI fund of the German Ministry of the Environment BMU.
This project has raised awareness among various European energy and climate stakeholders (scenario builders, policy makers, etc.) about energy sufficiency and its integration into climate and energy strategies in Central and Eastern Europe.
Link to the CACTUS website and its main deliverables.