How to solve the energy crisis Kris De Decker (edited by Vincent Grosjean) Don’t get me wrong: all efforts to build and develop renewable energy and energy efficient technology are

How to solve the energy crisis

Kris De Decker (edited by Vincent Grosjean)

Don’t get me wrong: all efforts to build and develop renewable energy and energy efficient technology are useful and very necessary. My point is that, by themselves, they will not yield any results. To make them work, we need to put an absolute limit to energy use.

Imagine that the European Union or the US would decide that in 2020 we can only use as much energy (or electricity) as we do today. Interestingly, all other efforts suddenly make sense. If the share of renewable energy would rise, then the share of non-renewable energy would automatically fall. Energy efficient technology would be automatically transformed in energy savings, and not in extra applications or performance, as it happens now.

In this scenario, with every small step forward in renewable energy production and energy efficient technology, we would become less and less dependent on fossil fuels^(a), and we would emit less and less greenhouse gases^(b). Moreover, it is hard to call this measure drastic or radical: if we can manage today with 18,008,000 Gwh^(c), why not in 2030? What more energy-sucking gadgets do we need? By the way, we can keep developing new products and services as we please, we will only have to make sure that these are energy efficient. Considering the amount of energy that is now wasted by most products and services^(d), there is lots of room for innovation, improvement^(e), and thus economic growth.

Right now we try to match our energy production to an ever increasing demand. But, we could also try to match our demand to a fixed supply. Considering the circumstances, this would be a much more realistic and intelligent strategy. An even better strategy is the “oil depletion protocol”, an idea of author Richard Heinberg. He proposes an international agreement to lower oil production and consumption each year with 2.6 percent. We can wait until the geological, economical or geopolitical reality lowers the availability of fossil fuels, but if we anticipate that reality now then we definitely have more of a chance to make a successful transition to a durable, less energy-intensive society.

Last, but not least, the IEA (International Energy Agency) notes that the rise of energy use is largely on account of non-western countries, with China ahead. But, this does not clear us at all. As the IEA calculated in a former report, almost 30 percent of energy use in China comes from the production of export goods - from bicycles over jeans to solar panels.

Western countries succeed in limiting the rise of their energy consumption because they have outsourced ever more energy use. Moreover, the IEA states in its last report, non-OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries are, in spite of their high share in current energy use, only responsible for 42 percent of the CO₂ emissions since 1890 - with a much bigger population. This means that - in a fair world - we would have to reduce our energy use much more than them.

Adapted from http://www.energybulletin.net/node/50809. Access on April 6, 2010.

In “we will only have to make sure that these are energy efficient.” (line 10), the pronoun ‘these’ refers to