From the BBC:
The new analysis of government figures comes from the environmental analysis website Carbon Brief. Its author says EU product standards on light bulbs, fridges, vacuum cleaners and other appliances have played a substantial part in reducing energy demand.
Provisional calculations show that electricity generation in the UK peaked around 2005. But generation per person is now back down to the level of 1984 (around 5 megawatt hours per capita).
It’s widely known that the great switch from coal power to renewables has helped the UK meet ambitions to cut carbon emissions. The report says the use of renewables reduced fossil fuel energy by the equivalent of 95 terawatt hours (TWh) between 2005 and now. And last year renewables supplied a record 33% share of UK electricity generation.
But in the meantime, humble energy efficiency has contributed to cutting energy demand by 103 TWh. In other words, in the carbon-cutting contest, efficiency has won – so far. And what’s more, efficiency is uncontroversial, unlike wind and solar.
All good stuff, as far as I can see, even if you put the climate change wibble to one side.
Whether the UK government would have imposed the same product standards as the EU is unknown, but there is no reason to assume it couldn't have done so; whether consumers and manufacturers would have responded the same way in the absence of such standards is also unknown, but hey. Higher electricity prices (with or without taxes on top) will tend to have this effect all by themselves.
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On a vaguely related topic, a few years ago, I bought some cheap roller blinds from IKEA for the windows and back door in our kitchen, so that I could reduce the glare of the winter sun shining directly on the telly and blinding me generally when it reflects off the sink and work surfaces.
I left them down in the evening and was surprised to see that they have really good insulating properties as well. They're just thin bits of white cloth with small gaps around them, but they do make the room noticeably warmer, even when I leave the back door open a couple of inches for ventilating cigarette smoke.
So a doubleplusgood investment of about £10 per window plus a couple of hours faff.
Debate Magazine
