Climate Change Energy Efficiency ICT Renewable Energy

Role of Energy Efficiency in Reversing Climate Change

Energy efficiency is in simple terms using a lesser amount of energy in doing a task at hand.

It is considered the workhorse of the clean energy world in many instances. Though mainly when we link energy with climate change the topic that comes to our mind is solar energy and other forms of green and renewable energy.

Energy efficiency works silently in the backdrop combating the emission levels in order to lower them in huge amounts.

Last year in a first-of-its-kind Energy Efficiency Impact Report, which was created as a joint effort of the Alliance to Save Energy, the American Council on an Energy Efficiency Economy and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy, took a look at the society-wide impacts of energy efficiency investments, policies, and innovation in order to have an in-depth study on them. As per the findings of this initiative since the 1980s without the investments made on energy efficiency the energy consumption and its related emissions would be about 60 per cent higher than they are currently and the consumers across the globe would be paying about $800 billion more per year in energy costs. Six policies were involved and were responsible for up to 20 per cent of those cuts, out of which the most impactful policy was on vehicle fuel emissions standards and the appliance and equipment efficiency standards. Nevertheless, the report points out that the biggest opportunities are still ahead of us.

The developments that come under this category include the deployment of smarter technology, like digitalization, AI (Artificial Intelligence), cloud(storage), and the internet of things – all of which could be coupled with more responsive energy management. According to the Energy Efficiency Impact report, additional investments in energy efficiency could result in the lowering of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 50 per cent by the year 2050.

For the people who have worked in the energy efficiency field for a very long time, none of this can be that surprising. Since it does not get the attention of flashier technologies, energy efficiency can be considered a powerful weapon in the arsenal of combating climate change.

Now more than ever especially after keeping the pandemic in mind energy efficiency can prove to be a useful tool for many countries across the globe to be used in their combat against climate change and it can bring about the positive change everyone hopes to bring about across the globe.

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Atul Philip

Atul Philip is passionate about writing content for and has been doing so for a while. Apart from this he often wonders about life under the sea and wonders about all those creatures that are yet to be found like the Loch Ness Monster.

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