Energy efficiency and structural change in the Netherlands, 1980–1990

A monitoring method was developed with which changes in the energy consumption of a country can be analyzed. A special feature of this method is that we used physical instead of economic indicators of activity wherever possible. The method distinguishes between the influences of improved energy efficiency and structural changes. With this method, the energy consumption in the Netherlands was studied for the period 1980–1990. The energy-to-GDP ratio decreased by 2.1% annually between 1980 and 1985 and by 0.3% between 1985 and 1990. A large part of this decrease can be attributed to the decreasing specific energy consumption in the subsectors.