# Energy Efficiency Policies to Face Buildings' Climate Change Effects in Paraguay
## 3 Review of Paraguayan Actions
### The Road Toward EE in Paraguay
Thus, to meet the demand, Paraguay opted for the importation of biomass instead of promoting efficiency, technical development, increasing hydropower consumption and progress towards sustainability [15]. In this way, the abundant availability of hydroelectric resources in the country, coupled with the lack of promotion of renewable energies, has affected the development of other types of renewable energy sources. Due to these issues, the Vice Ministry of Mines and Energies (Vice Ministerio de Minas y Energia, VMME) was created in 1990, which is continually developing projects to expand the use of renewable energies, establishing policies to promote correct energy use and EE [15]. However, this issue still lacks political interest and funding [9]. One of the first projects carried out by the VMME was the Strategic Plan for the Energy Sector 2005-2013 (Plan Estrategico del Sector Energetico, PESE). This plan outlined a set of objectives aiming to improve the institutional coordination of the country's energy sector, ensuring the quality of energy supply, promoting efficiency and energy savings, achieving the extension of energy coverage and considering environmental aspects. Nonetheless, in the area of EE, only objectives for the upgrading of electricity systems were set [36]. The VMME is the only State body that has competence in all the energy subsectors and oversees the policies for the sector. Since 2010 it has been the chair of the National Energy Board, which is an opportunity for developing the Country's energy policy systematically and coherently. Eight Institutions of the Country's energy sector integrate this board. The energy policy guidelines include aspects of the renewable energy field, universal access to energy, sustainable energy, energy efficiency, etc. [37]. According to an analysis carried out in 2013, at that time, Paraguay did not have any EE programs. Only in 2011, the National Energy Efficiency Committee (Comite Nacional de Efficiencia Energetica, CNEE) was created in the scope of the VMME. The main objective of this committee was to prepare and implement the National Plan for the Rational and Efficient Use of Energy. It is important to note that although the PESE was published in 2004, it was not significantly focused on EE [6; 38]. With the creation of CNEE, the Paraguayan government took its first steps towards a sustainable energy policy, assuming the importance of the rational and efficient use of energy to ensure energy supply in an environmentally friendly way, considering the economy and country's development [39]. Consistent with a work published by Itaipu Binational, in 2008 the Paraguayan electricity system was heading towards a crisis, which would have caused collateral effects on the country's economy. For this reason, an energy emergency policy was initiated to reverse that situation, focused on improving and expanding the infrastructure and promoting the use of more efficient equipment. Figure 2: Paraguay’s Energy matrix 2016 [35]. Nevertheless, electricity losses continue to be significant, and national energy consumption is one of the most inefficient of America [40]. As indicated by [PERSON] [41], Paraguay is in the process of reducing the losses produced throughout the process of energy transformation and distribution, through the incorporation of better technologies and better habits of consumption, and through strategies of dissemination and education aiming to create the community awareness. The author also states that the objective of the CNEE is generating strategies to achieve adequate economic growth to enhance the living standards of all Paraguayans, protecting the environment and ensuring energy supply. Since the creation of the CNEE in 2011, several workshops have determined the shortcomings of the country's energy system, where the need to develop programs and strategies focused on EE was identified. However, various weaknesses were detected hindering the development of EE initiatives, both in public and private sectors (Table 1) [6].