The developed world is increasingly energy constrained. There is an urgent need to reduce dependence on energy imports from unstable or unfriendly areas of the world and to increase the use of renewable energy technologies to meet our energy needs into the 21st century. In Europe the provision of a more secure energy supply is now the primary driver of energy supply and efficiency related policies. In the UK there are now explicit incentives for the use of technologies delivering heat from renewable sources: the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and a mechanism for paying incentives for the installation of electricity generation equipment through the "Feed in Tariff". There is also a programme for the installation of energy efficiency measures in existing buildings which are initially funded by market packages, and these are then paid off over the following years from the reduced utility bills which the measures facilitate. There is also the European Union's Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which has recently been updated and will require mandatory improvements to existing buildings as well as the setting of minimum standards of energy performance for new and existing buildings, with a target for all new buildings within the European Union to be "nearly zero carbon" by 2020. This paper will review the legal mechanisms being introduced to incentivise low or zero carbon technologies, or to require standards of building fabric performance that will reduce dependency on energy imports. It will discuss the introduction of new standards for energy efficient dwellings, and will also detail the various technologies supported or encouraged and will also demonstrate the benefits offered by the various schemes. While it will focus on the UK experience, it will also draw on experience from the various schemes adopted elsewhere in Europe.