Horace Herring

IS ENERGY EFFICIENCY ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

This paper challenges the view that improving the efficiency of energy use will lead to a reduction in national energy consumption, and hence is an effective policy for reducing CO2 emissions. It argues that improving energy efficiency lowers the implicit price of energy and hence make its use more affordable, thus leading to greater use. The paper presents the views of economists, as well as green critics of ‘efficiency’ and the ‘dematerialization’ thesis. The paper argues that a more effective CO2 policy is to concentrate on shifting to non-fossil fuel fuels, like renewables, subsidized through a carbon tax. Ultimately what is needed, to limit energy consumption, is energy conservation not energy efficiency.

Sustainable services, electronic education and the rebound effect

This paper challenges the belief that improving the efficiency of resource use will necessarily lead to lower consumption. Findings are presented of a study by the UK Open University of the environmental impacts of three higher education (HE) delivery systems. Initial analysis indicates that the distance-taught courses involve 90% less energy and CO2 emissions than the campus courses. Electronic delivery does not result in a reduction in energy or CO2 emissions compared to print-based distance learning, due to rebound effects, e.g. in use of computers and home heating. The paper concludes that to limit consumption, we need to deal with rebound effects and practice ‘sustainable consumption’.

Is Britain a Third World country?: The case of German refrigerators

Abstract This paper contrasts the difference in efficiency of UK and German domestic refrigeration, and examines the role of energy labelling in improving appliance efficiency. It first compares the range of models currently available in the UK and Germany, and examines the reasons for the difference. It then estimates the UK savings from the consumer purchase of more efficient models, which could be bought about by an energy labelling scheme. It contrasts the current energy labelling scheme in the UK with that existing in the USA and concludes that the lack of an effective labelling scheme in the UK leads to the ‘dumping’ of overseas inefficient models.

Electricity use in minor appliances in the UK

Electricity consumption in minor (or miscellaneous) appliances is growing rapidly in the domestic sector in the UK. Often minor appliances are substituting for major ones, as in the proliferation of small cooking devices. In this paper we compare ownership and consumption of minor appliances in the UK to that in the US, and conclude that minor appliances may deliver energy services more efficiently that major ones.

The Limits to Energy Efficiency: Time to Beat the Rebound Effect

While the previous chapter has presented technical solutions to reducing energy use, this chapter first looks at the historic failure of this approach to reduce consumption and then at how we might do better. The simple message is that achieving reductions in energy use, and consequent greenhouse gas emissions, is not simply a matter of technology. What also matters is how we use the technology and what our expectations of it are. This can be illustrated by an example.

The search for a utopian energy policy

Sixty Years of Nuclear History by Fred Roberts. Jon Carpenter, 1999. Pp.x + 196; index. £12 (paperback). ISBN 1 897766 483 Public Purpose or Private Benefit? The Politics of Energy Conservation by Gill Owen. Manchester University Press, 1999. Pp.xvi + 218; index. £45 (hardback). ISBN 0 7190 5025 1 Transforming Electricity by Walt Patterson. RIIA & Earthscan 1999. Pp.xiii + 196; index. £12.99 (paperback). ISBN 1 85383 341 X

Renewables: The energy alternative?

Thorp: the Whitehall Nightmare by Crispin Aubrey. Oxford: Jon Carpenter, 1993. Pp.86. £5.99 (paperback). ISBN 1 897766 076 Renewable Energy Strategies for Europe Volume II: Electricity Systems and Primary Electricity Sources by Michael Grubb with Roberto Vigotte. London: Earthscan, 1997. Pp.xxiv + 231. £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 85383 284 7 Energy, Society and Environment by David Elliott. London: Routledge, 1997. £35 (hardback); £10.99 (paperback). Pp.xxvi + 252. ISBN 0415 14506 6 and 14507 4

Being definite about the environment

FutureNatural: Nature, Science, Culture edited by George Robertson, Melinda Mash, Lisa Tickner, Jon Bird, Barry Curtis and Tim Putnam. London: Routledge, 1996. Pp.x + 310; index. £12.99. ISBN 0 415 07014 7 Environmental Issues and Sustainable Futures: A Critical Guide to Recent Books, Reports and Periodicals edited by Michael Marien. Bethesda, MD: World Future Society, 1996. Pp.xii + 170; indexes.

Energy efficiency—a critical view

35 plus

Technological innovation, energy efficient design and the rebound effect

4.50 surface postage to UK. ISBN 0 930 242513 Eco‐facts and Eco‐fiction: Understanding the Environment Debate by William H. Baarschers. London: Routledge, 1996. Pp.xiv + 255; indexes. £45 (hardback); £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 415 13020 4 and 13021 2