Efficiency: The answer to climate change?
What a wonderful word efficiency is. As an economist (we all are by the way) one almost salivates over the word, knowing deep down that it exists in 2 dimensions usually in a textbook where one line meets another.
Alongside “ceteris paribus” it ranks as one of those words or phrases which we extol, use a lot but know to be shrouded in a cloak of misinformation.
One approach to dealing with climate change has been the technological one….increasing efficiency (output per input etc). One problem with this is that sometimes efficiency, in money terms, can actually encourage an increase in demand.
Witness air travel, i pods, computers, LCD tvs and the like. Craig at Celsias has an interesting post on this conundrum quoting the Khazzoom-Brookes Postulate which investigates whether energy efficiency actually saves energy.
The premise being that when we perceive an improvement in something we have been told not to use we all rush to use more of it. That makes sense. We’ve seen that with almost all new technological developments, air travel being the most obvious. See how the airlines that have cut fares have prospered by creating greater demand than expected.
The point of all this is that improving efficiency may not be the answer if demand is simply going to absorb it all. It reminds me of the Red Queen effect where we keep running just to keep up.
This has been noted in the area of organ donation and other medical advances. So once we can fly from Christchurch to London in a few hours for the same energy output we use now you can be sure a few million people will be commuting daily 
August 7th, 2007 at 4:19 am
I was reading recently in New Scientist that housing efficiency (by the architecture, insulation, is perhaps the biggest thing we can change almost overnight. But almost no-one is enforcing the rules. While guesstimates reckon better design pays for itself in under seven years, why would a landlord spend that money that the renter would be paying for in fuel bills? Of course, this is “passive” energy efficiency, and it’s relatively low tech.
August 13th, 2007 at 2:51 am
You’re correct. Housing is where a lot of our energy is expended and also the place where huge efficiency gains are possible. The building code is being updated all the time to incorporate new regulations for new build. I’d prefer the market to be signalling this but for the moment a general legislative shift is going to help.
Housing is generally in a shocking state in NZ with many people hardened to cold houses. The WHO reported 30% of NZ houses as being under WHO guidelines of an ambient temperature of 16%.
Once the technology is improved you will see companies come to the party by selling energy as a service and providing solar energy to you at a price which include the rental of solar cells on your roof.
Companies in the US are already offering this and it is only a matter of time before it makes its way to the Lucky Countries