NEWS

Thursday, November 30, 2006

“Greenie Weenie” Conservation Measures Add Up!

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A new report says efficiency improvements could cut global energy-consumption increases by more than half over the next 15 years. From replacing bulbs and improving insulation to rejiggering government regulations, “the opportunities are huge, and yet they are being left on the table,” says Diana Farrell, director of the McKinsey Global Institute, which issued the report.

Un-glamorous changes such as obsessively sealing and insulating your home will save more than, in the words of one expert, “greenie weenie” additions like green roofs and solar panels. Twenty-two percent of all energy in the United States is used for residential purposes. (Transportation accounts for 28 percent.) And although residences consume only about two-fifths of this as electricity, because electrical generation is inherently inefficient, it accounts for 71 percent of household emissions. A home’s electrical use may be responsible for more CO2 emissions than the two cars in the driveway. Ultimately, changes made at home may be the quickest, cheapest, and easiest way to reduce one’s carbon footprint.

Mr. Janke, a new homeowner who changed his energy-inefficient ways, had hit on what experts say is perhaps the easiest and most cost-effective place to reduce one’s energy consumption: home. Cutting back on electricity used for lighting (9 percent of residential usage nationwide) presents the quickest savings-to-effort ratio.

All this in the face of our own Canadian government announcing more cuts to Climate Change Programs that support energy efficiency on farms. As reported in The Globe and Mail on November 25, five climate-change programs at Agriculture Canada will be shut down. They include:

A $5-million Model Farms program to develop estimates of how much carbon can be removed from the atmosphere through new farming practices;

A $21-million project called the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program for Canadian Agriculture, meant to involve farmers in the government’s campaign to reduce greenhouse gases;

A $4-million Shelterbelts Enhancement Program that aims to reduce greenhouse gases by encouraging farmers to line their fields with trees to reduce wind and help control snow piles;

A program dealing with manure management and a fifth program dealing with the role of farmers and “future fuels.”

Last April, the government cancelled approximately 15 climate-change programs, arguing they were ineffective. These included two more high-profile programs: the One-Tonne Challenge that encouraged individual Canadians to conserve energy, and the EnerGuide program for houses that provided incentives for Canadians to retrofit their houses.

Read the full articles in The Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times.