The Government has been forced into another backdown on its plans to curb the use of fossil fuels after a review found its energy-efficiency strategy has been a costly failure. Energy Minister Trevor Mallard and the Greens' government spokeswoman on energy, Jeanette Fitzsimons, yesterday announced that the four year-old National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy was to be dumped.

Former energy minister Pete Hodgson unveiled the strategy in 2001, along with a $79-million, five-year budget, which aimed to increase energy efficiency by 20 per cent by 2012, and to increase the use of renewable energy by between 19% and 42%. But a review of the Government's energy-efficiency strategy, released yesterday, found that the percentage of energy use coming from renewable resources was actually falling.