Time is not on our side

Energy efficiency is the one strategy that can immediately help to address the climate change and energy security. 

Earlier this year, the outgoing Executive Director of the International Energy Agency quoted the Rolling Stones song “Time is on my side”.  He noted that, sadly, we cannot make such a claim when designing policy to achieve energy security and climate change goals at an affordable cost – in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

According to the latest Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)⁴ if we want to stabilise global atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at 590 ppm CO2 equivalent – more than twice pre-industrial levels –  , then global emissions need to peak by 2010-2030.  And to achieve this means we need to retrofit our entire economies – not something that can be achieved quickly given that our capital infrastructure (our roads, buildings, power plants and industrial plant and equipment) have lifetimes that stretch over decades.  Forcing the replacement of all of this capital by 2030 is likely to be politically unrealistic and economically inefficient. 

So, energy efficiency must be a key strategy to buy us time to be able to reorganise our societies and economies to become less carbon intensive. 

We at the IEA Secretariat have promoted 16 priority actions for governments to take to improve energy, and specifically electrical efficiency.  These include in the area of buildings:

·        Setting mandatory energy efficiency standards for new buildings·        Promoting passive & zero energy buildingsAnd for appliances & lighting:·        Limiting standby power to 1 watt·        Establishing minimum energy performance standards for appliances and requiring labels·        Setting regulations that require devices (including networked devices) to enter low power modes automatically

·        Phasing out the most inefficient incandescent bulbs as soon as commercially & economically viable.

The IEA estimates that if all 16 actions are implemented globally, they could cost-effectively save 5,700 MtCO₂/yr by 2030.  This is equivalent to the USA’s total CO₂ emissions in 2004.

There is no time to lose.

Check out http://www.iea.org/Textbase/subjectqueries/keyresult.asp?KEYWORD_ID=4122 and http://www.iea.org/G8/docs/recommendations_heiligendamm.pdf for more details on the IEA’s energy efficiency policy recommendations