Efficiency/sufficiency

Efficiency/sufficiency

It is quite evident that the less the fuel used, the lower will be the greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gdp. This is known as emissions intensity. In this respect, the industrialized world had been inefficient, initially--used more fuel and generated more emissions. It attained efficiency with economic growth. The rich world wants emerging rich countries to avoid this path. It wants these countries to invest in energy efficiency before they can afford it. All climate change mitigation scenarios bank on increasing energy efficiency.

The efficiency math is full of myths.
myth 1 China and India are energy- inefficient and therefore grossly polluting. However, recent reports show this "belief" is founded on myths. The World Bank, in its October 2007 report on growth and co₂ emissions, finds that India is 1. 5 times more efficient than the us in terms of emissions calculated in purchasing power parity terms. Highly-abused China is slightly more inefficient than the us-- despite being the world's largest manufacturing hub (see table Comparative emissions efficiency).

The Washington-based World Resources Institute finds that emissions intensities have fallen only in the recent past for most countries--between 1990 and 2002. The emissions intensity of the top 25 polluters fell by an average of 15 per cent in this period, which has helped the world reduce pollution. In this period, the us's emissions intensity dropped by 17 per cent. But the study noted, the most striking decline was in China, where the intensity dropped by 51 per cent, while India recorded a 9 per cent fall in emissions intensity over this period, an unusual phenomenon for countries during periods of high growth. What is also important is that these countries have avoided pollution, even though they are dependent on coal for energy (see table Growing fast... ).

This is not rocket science. The fact is the energy costs industry and it will do what it can within its investment capabilities to reduce usage and increase profits. In 2005, the Centre for Science and Environment in its detailed environmental rating of the cement industry found that Indian industry was in fact more efficient than its counterparts in the us and Canada. The issue is how this efficiency revolution can be expedited; and what funds and technologies can be made available to these countries so that they do not make the mistakes of the industrialized world.

myth 2 Efficiency, not sufficiency, will cut emissions. It is true that the world has learnt to reduce its emission per unit of output, but it is equally true that this cut has not led to any real reduction in the total emissions of the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows the growth of emissions is today decoupled from emissions intensity (see graph Income to emission ).

For instance, between 1996 and 2005, in the uk, fuel consumed for each 100 km covered by new cars fell by 6 per cent. But co₂ emissions rose by 4 per cent because the cars were driven over longer distances. In other words, even though emissions intensity decreased in the world, emissions continued to rise. There is only one correlation that clicks emissions rise as incomes rise.
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