By Rapid Transition Alliance Staff, Rapid Transition Alliance
The incorporation of Fanger’s equations into building codes to create a set-point for comfort not only locks in assumptions that only apply to a male, suited minority, but also a level of energy use and hence carbon emissions which, in aggregate, contribute to the climate emergency.
By Jay Walljasper, Resilience.org
Solberg calculates that 75 percent of energy use and costs for heating could be eliminated in commercial, health care and residential buildings through AHR, even in the frosty Midwest. He points to a new health club in Edina, Minnesota, which is already saving on construction costs and projected to see 50 percent lower operating costs.
By Elizabeth Russell, Southeast Sustainability Directors Network
In a city like Charleston, with deep cultural roots and more historic buildings than you can count, the effects of development on neighborhood preservation and the growing impacts of climate change demand a new approach that can address both issues simultaneously.
By Molly Enking, Grist
As the rest of the country continues to go back and forth over the possibility of a nationwide Green New Deal, New York City is forging ahead with its own version.
By Corinne Le Quéré, Charlie Wilson, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
The research team analysed the reasons behind changes in CO2 emissions in countries where emissions declined significantly between 2005 and 2015. The findings, published in Nature Climate Change, show that the fall in CO2 emissions was mainly due to renewable energy replacing fossil fuels and to decreasing energy use.
By Chris Nelder, Energy Transition Show
Are investments in energy transition, especially for public dollars in the form of incentives or subsidies, worth it? Do investments in energy efficiency truly pay off, or does efficiency just make energy cheaper because we’re using less of it, encouraging customers to use more of it—a phenomenon known as the rebound effect, the backfire hypothesis, and the Jevons Paradox?
By Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief
The research suggests that improving energy efficiency – chiefly by saving on everyday energy use – could play a major role in restricting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, which is the aspirational target of the Paris Agreement.
By Kris De Decker, Low-Tech Magazine
To focus on energy efficiency is to make present ways of life non-negotiable. However, transforming present ways of life is key to mitigating climate change and decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels.
By Tilman Santarius, Degrowth.de
Debates about the so-called rebound effect go back to William Stanley Jevons’ work in the 19th century, although they had been forgotten for too long. Rebound effects occur if a reduction of inputs per unit of output (efficiency) generates an absolute increase in output (growth).
By Claire Schosser, Living Low in the Lou
In which we learn how a sensible family of limited financial means achieved their goal of reducing their energy usage and utility bills.
By Simon Evans, Carbon Brief
UK heating must be virtually zero-carbon by 2050, says the Committee on Climate Change (CCC).
By Chris Nelder, The Energy Transition Show
Improving efficiency is almost always easier and cheaper than generating new power, so efficiency should be our first target in energy transition. But it’s usually the last.