Journal Entry #7- Researching about Economics relating to energy

I have continued to research about the broader topic of sustainability, specifically its relation to economics. Energy is used and created all around the world in order to supply houses and buildings with energy. However, I noticed that prices vary from country, as seen in the graph below:

I was personally very surprised how costs of electricity vary by different countries. In my opinion the cost of electricity have a lot to do with the energy efficiency of a country. After continuing my research I found a very interesting PDF document:

http://www.climateinstitute.org.au/verve/_resources/Vivid_Economics_-_Energy_efficiency_and_economic_growth_June_2013.pdf

The document started by explaining interesting statistics about energy in general, based on different countries; like for example:




However, after taking a deeper look and close reading I discovered that this document is discovering the link between energy efficiency of a country and its economic growth. After reading this, it was discovered that:"There is statistical evidence that energy efficiency positively contributes to economic growth. A 1 per cent increase in the level of energy efficiency causes a 0.1 percentage point increase in the rate of economic growth in that year."

Source: http://www.climateinstitute.org.au/verve/_resources/Vivid_Economics_-_Energy_efficiency_and_economic_growth_June_2013.pdf 

From my analysis, I can conclude that through a steady and efficient energy system is a country, including low prices and a very high efficiency rate, a countries economic growth can be affected positively. This could mean that more countries are willing to lower energy prices and improve efficiency rates; in order to try to achieve a quicker economic growth.
 In my opinion one theory why this could be affected positively is because through a higher energy efficiency, a company is able to save a lot of money whilst being able to spent it on new innovations and technologies.