Barbara Vergetis Lundin writes a good article in Fierce Energy about the economic rewards from energy efficiency investments in US programmes. It will be good to see whether other studies are finding similar results in Europe and abroad. Energy efficiency investments reap three times the economic rewards The Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA) has … Continue reading Reaping the benefits of energy efficiency
Commission’s 2030 energy efficiency strategy under attack
Energy efficiency is considered one of the pillars of energy and climate policy but it is far from obvious when there are binding targets for GHG emissions and renewable energy but not for energy efficiency. That was the case for 2020 targets and remains the case, from the European Commission’s recent proposal, for 2030 targets. … Continue reading Commission’s 2030 energy efficiency strategy under attack
Brief notes
There are several short briefs that should be of interest. • Jan Rosenow and Nicholas Howarth have published a new academic report on banning the incandescent lightbulb in Germany. Much academic attention has been directed at analysing energy efficiency investments through the lens of ‘behavioural failure’. These studies have challenged the neoclassical framing of regulation … Continue reading Brief notes
Showing urban leadership – part 2
Continuing on an urban theme, there was a recent survey of 300 cities on energy efficiency and technologies that provides very interesting evidence on investments in energy-efficient technologies. This article comes from the Buildings.com website. Separately, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a new role as U.N. envoy on cities and climate change. … Continue reading Showing urban leadership – part 2
Showing urban leadership – part 1
Many US cities are working very closely together to increase the energy performance of large buildings. Sarah Kollmorgen writes on Northwestern University’s Madill Reports website about the City Energy Project that includes Chicago from where she is writing from. 10 cities, one energy-efficient goal Chicago is one of 10 cities that have joined the … Continue reading Showing urban leadership – part 1
Understanding climate deniers
David Robert Grimes of Oxford University has written an excellent article in The Guardian about what really motivates deniers. As Grimes writes, true sceptics test a hypothesis against the evidence, but climate sceptics refuse to accept anything that contradicts their beliefs. Denying climate change isn't scepticism – it's 'motivated reasoning' The grim findings of the … Continue reading Understanding climate deniers
The truth be told . . .
H&V News reports about a new survey in the UK to get a better understanding of what British people feel about energy efficiency. Interestingly, the highest percentage has an exaggerated view about how energy efficient they are. It would be good to know how the British compare with others in Europe and globally. They probably … Continue reading The truth be told . . .
Dealing with air pollution creating greater transparency in China
China knows it has an air quality problem that has to be tackled directly and effectively. Surprisingly, this is including the disclosure of data on air pollution, as shown in the following article by Simon Denyer in the Washington Post, and now 15,000 factories are required to publicly report details on their air emissions and … Continue reading Dealing with air pollution creating greater transparency in China
Unintended impact of renewable energy targets in Romania
We have seen many EU member states retreating from high feed-in tariffs for renewable energy. We see Germany bounding ahead with renewables as its centrepiece for its energy transition. We have seen the European Commission recently propose a binding target for renewable energy for 2030, but binding only EU-wide and not for individual countries, whatever … Continue reading Unintended impact of renewable energy targets in Romania
The roller coaster approach to renewable energy policy
This article by Colm Kelpie in the Irish Independent is quite disturbing because EU and national energy policies were supposed to develop a long-term policy framework that gave investors confidence and reduced risk. Instead, we are seeing the traditional stop-start approach to energy policy. If we are serious about 2030 or 2050 energy and climate … Continue reading The roller coaster approach to renewable energy policy
