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The most efficient way to reduce greenhouse gases – yes, it’s energy efficiency!

Energy Efficiency May Be the Key to Saving Trillions NYT 30 Nov 14 Compared with eye-catching renewable power technologies like wind turbines and solar panels, energy efficiency is nearly invisible. But advocates say doing more with less power may be an even more critical weapon in the fight against climate change and offers big economic benefits, too.

Worldwide, governments, companies and families could be saving trillions of dollars by improving efficiency with cars that go farther on less fuel and improved appliances, light bulbs and factories, experts say. “It’s logical, because we simply waste so much,” said Harry Verhaar, head of global and public affairs at Philips Lighting and chairman of the European Alliance to Save Energy. “Some people call energy efficiency low-hanging fruit. I would even say energy efficiency is fruit lying on the ground. We only need to bend over and pick it up.”

Realizing those energy savings would be a huge boon to the climate, ease illness-causing air pollution, reduce many nations’ reliance on fuel imports and increase competitiveness by lowering costs, the advocates say. It creates jobs in fields like upgrading buildings, and is generally cheaper than the alternative of constructing new power plants and buying more energy, they argue.

But increasing efficiency is logistically complicated, requiring many individuals and organizations to take a tremendous number of small steps, and most nations have failed to aggressively pursue the potential savings………..

The countries that have made the most progress on efficiency are those whose governments have prioritized it, Mr. Nadel said. Many are in Europe, where Germany, for example, requires regular efficiency audits of manufacturers and has stringent building codes, Ms. Young said.

Environmentalists, though, are disappointed with an October agreement by European Union leaders to set a non-binding target of increasing the bloc’s energy efficiency by at least 27 percent by 2030, as part of a broader climate deal.

Monica Frassoni, president of the European alliance, said that would hardly exceed the rate of efficiency improvements already happening, and stronger government action was needed. “These things do not fall from the sky,” she said. “You need political leadership and you need money.” China has made major strides in recent years and ranks fourth on the efficiency scorecard.

When Deng Xiaoping set his sights in the early 1980s on quadrupling economic output, China’s leaders realized that, without dramatic efficiency improvements, it would depend heavily on imported energy, Mr. Sinton said.

“It really takes persistence, and persistence is what has characterized the Chinese effort,” he said. “They began to institutionalize energy efficiency, they allocated money to research and development, they started to set targets.”

While China still has wasteful factories and buildings, it also boasts some of the world’s most efficient, he said………..

Despite up-front costs, advocates say efficiency measures are a bargain compared with other pieces of the puzzle. “Energy efficiency is the only energy that you could say is for free, where you get your money back,” Mr. Verhaar said. “Because it’s energy that you don’t use.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/01/business/energy-environment/energy-efficiency-may-be-the-key-to-saving-trillions.html?ref=earth&_r=0

December 1, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, ENERGY