On a per capita basis, we are still among the worst though, Anna. We like to blame that on our climate and the size of our country, but look at our lifestyles.
We used to have rail travel. It was cheap and easy. Now it's hard and expensive.
We used to have public transport in cities. A lot of it ran on electricity. It's gone in all but the largest cities now.
In the 70's we had federal and provincial programs to cut back on energy usage. They were effective and they spawned an industry that, along with our climate, has given us some of the best energy-efficient building technology on the planet. Most of it isn't code though, there are no retrofit programs worth talking about, and new technologies are fought by special interest groups every step of the way.
The biggest single point about developing countries is that they get their technology from us though. If we go to friendly technologies, so will they. Do you think somebody in China cares if their car runs on gasoline or alcohol or hydrogen? They don't. In fact they care less than us because they have a lot less invested in existing infrastructure. They will use what's available, but we haven't made anything else available.