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.
By Karen Lynn Allen, Musings
Now one might think with all these heat losses that going all-electric isn't a good idea until all our electricity is produced by hydro and renewables. One would be wrong.
By Kris De Decker, Low-tech Magazine
From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, urban farmers grew Mediterranean fruits and vegetables as far north as England and the Netherlands, using only renewable energy.