Some climate strategies are sexy, and energy efficiency is certainly not one of them. Despite this, I am thoroughly convinced that a concentrated push for global energy efficiency is the most productive direction for the climate movement. The opportunities are truly massive: energy efficiency measures could halve US projected energy consumption in 2030. Globally, energy efficiency improvements could profitably reduce 2020 energy consumption by 1/4. And because increased energy efficiency is primarily blocked by political, not technical, barriers, activists could achieve huge results if they unified around this goal.
For now I just want to sketch out some of the potential of energy efficiency, and suggest policy directions to be explored. Further analysis should explore how the low cost of energy efficiency measures could be used to counter republican calls for nuclear and drill,drill,drilling.
Continue reading ‘Energy Efficiency: New Climate Battleground’
