The idea, of course, is that energy bills savings will cover the investment costs and may eventually even generate additional cash. Moreover, the windfall may eventually be topped up by carbon credits – money paid in exchange for emitting less pollution capped by the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

While various EU initiatives, including subsidised wind turbines and solar panels, may be enjoying their day in the sun – or at least in the media – energy efficiency was actually a real business concern when oil prices last spiked 30 years ago. In fact, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reckons that energy use would be 56% higher than it is today if companies had not improved their efficiencies during the last 35 years. Moreover, some observers point out that as business has become more global, energy saving in European industry today is less worthwhile than it used to be.

Some industries fear that they may lose competitiveness by investing in this area, spending more than manufacturers without obligations in developing countries. In many cases, it is also cheaper to outsource manufacturing to developing nations.

This is why the campaign to save energy in Europe is still an uphill struggle, not just in the traditional sectors but also in construction and service companies, because individually these do not emit large amounts of energy. Heavy industry’s reluctance to spend more on new plant equipment is compounded by some government’s hesitations on buildings’ policies – an area suffering from huge wastage because tenants, rather than construction companies, pay the energy bills.

Yet Henderson’s George Latham argues that a new factor has now come into play. “The increase in the oil price is a major reason [for growth] – pressures are becoming more intense, which focuses minds at the buyer level on capital expenditure decisions,” he asserts. As industry grew by becoming more efficient, it encouraged greater energy consumption all over the planet, leading to higher emissions and more thirst for oil.

The challenge for Western environmentalists is to contain that demand as China and India’s economies climb steeply at the same time as oil companies wrestle with the problem of lower production from mature fields. The IEA says China‘s vehicle fleet alone will expand sevenfold by 2030 while India will overtake Japan to become the world’s third largest net importer of oil. In a 2007 briefing, the agency warned: “A supply-side crunch in the period to 2015, involving an abrupt escalation in oil prices, cannot be ruled out.” Under these circumstances the energy-efficiency sector is set to grow, but as much because of pragmatism as idealism.