Energy efficiency in industry plays key roles in improving energy security, environmental sustainability and economic performance. It is particularly important in strategies to mitigate climate change. The evidence of great potential for cost-effective efficiency-derived reductions in industrial energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have prompted governments to implement numerous policies and measures aimed at improving their manufacturing industries' energy efficiency. What can be learned from these many and varied initiatives? This paper provides foundation for policy analysis for enhancing energy efficiency and conservation in industry, by surveying more than 300 policies, encompassing about 570 measures, implemented by governments in IEA countries, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. It outlines the measures' main features, their incidence of use, and their connections with specific technical actions and key stakeholders (i.e., how and where measures affect the energy efficiency of industry). It also examines the key features underlying the measures' success: (1) potential to reduce energy use and CO2 emissions cost-efficiently; (2) ease of policy development, execution and assessment and (3) ancillary societal effects. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.