Energy efficiency offers the largest and most cost-effective opportunity for both
industrialized and developing nations to limit the enormous financial, health
and environmental costs associated with burning fossil fuels. Available, costeffective
investments in energy and water efficiency globally are estimated to
be tens of billions of dollars per year. However, the actual investment level is
far less, representing only a fraction of the existing, financially attractive
opportunities for energy savings investments. In the interest of brevity,
throughout this document the terms "energy" and "energy savings" represent
both energy and water. Although there are differences between energy
efficiency measures and water efficiency measures, they share many common
attributes and are often part of the same project.