The Industrial Development Report 2011 (IDR) addresses the role of industrial energy efficiency in sustainable industrial development. About a fifth of global income is generated directly by the manufacturing industry, and nearly half of household consumption relies on goods from industrial processes. People’s needs for food, transportation, communication, housing, health and entertainment are met largely by manufacturing.

Since the Industrial Revolution, waves of innovation have shaped how people work and live. During the 19th and 20th centuries, developed countries relied on manufacturing to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of their growing populations.

Today, developing countries are counting on industrialization to do the same for them. Improvements in the standard of living made possible through industrialization have come at an environmental cost. Energy consumption per capita has increased nine-fold over the last 200 years. Materials use per capita more than doubled over 1900–2005.

And though the fossil fuels that have fed industrial development are not as abundant as once thought, overall energy consumption is not likely to fall soon. Pollution, resource depletion and the waste of discarded products–each
at an all-time high–are major causes of environmental degradation and climate change. Policy-makers must address them as they remap development paths.

Industrial development must become sustainable. Continued high resource consumption and reliance on carbon-intensive and polluting technologies will sap the potential for growth and development. Innovative solutions, national and global, are vital to making industrial activity more sustainable–to attuning it to environmental, economic and social needs. This “green industry” approach can provide the blueprint for sustained industrial development.

Industrial energy efficiency is a key foundation for greener industry worldwide. By building on past successes, countries can develop their industries and generate employment while tempering the impacts on resource depletion and climate change.

The IDR 2011 focuses on industrial energy-efficiency challenges in developing countries, which are emerging as key actors in global industrial development.

The report looks in depth at long-term trends in industrial energy intensity and related technological and structural change; examines the environmental, economic and social benefits of industrial energy efficiency; and identifies obstacles to its promotion and uptake and ways to overcome them.

Report by the UN Industrial Development Organisation