In October 2008, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to develop a National Strategy on Energy Efficiency to accelerate energy efficiency efforts, streamline roles and responsibilities across levels of governments and help households and businesses to transition to a low carbon future.

The strategy is designed to substantially improve minimum standards for energy efficiency and accelerate the introduction of new technologies through improving regulatory processes and addressing the barriers to the uptake of new energy efficient products and technologies.

The measures in the strategy are framed around the following four key themes:

1. Assisting households and businesses to transition to a low-carbon future
   Measures under this theme will assist households and businesses to transition to a low-carbon future by providing material assistance as well as the information and skills necessary to improve efficiency of energy use.
2. Reducing impediments to the uptake of energy efficiency
   Designed to encourage and enable action by individuals and business by providing the right information and ensuring that the regulatory frameworks are in place to deliver continuing improvements to:
   • Electricity Markets (in bringing forward demand-side initiatives).
   • The energy efficiency of appliances and equipment.
   • The energy efficiency of the transport sector.
3. Making buildings more energy efficient
   Sets the foundation for a transformation of Australia’s building stock and is designed to drive significant improvement in minimum energy efficiency standards to deliver substantial growth in the number of highly efficient homes and commercial buildings, reflecting international best practice. The transformation will be achieved through a combination of measures addressing both new building design and construction and existing building stock.
4. Government working in partnership and leading the way
   This strategy encompasses several ways to improve energy efficiency of government operations, and consequently reduce whole of life cost and environmental impact. For example, governments are major clients in the commercial buildings market, with the Australian Government alone representing around 13 percent of the commercial office market.