Download or read book Potentials and Policy Implications of Energy and Material Efficiency Improvement written by Ernst Worrell and published by New York : United Nations. This book was released on 1997 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a growing awareness of the serious problems associated with the provision of sufficient energy to meet human needs and to fuel economic growth world-wide. This has pointed to the need for energy and material efficiency, which would reduce air, water and thermal pollution, as well as waste production. Increasing energy and material efficiency also have the benefits of increased employment, improved balance of imports and exports, increased security of energy supply, and adopting environmentally advantageous energy supply. A large potential exists for energy savings through energy and material efficiency improvements. Technologies are not now, nor will they be, in the foreseeable future, the limiting factors with regard to continuing energy efficiency improvements. There are serious barriers to energy efficiency improvement, including unwillingness to invest, lack of available and accessible information, economic disencentives and organizational barriers. A wide range of policy instruments, as well as innovative approaches have been tried in some countries in order to achieve the desired energy efficiency approaches. These include: regulation and guidelines; economic instruments and incentives; voluntary agreements and actions, information, education and training; and research, development and demonstration. An area that requires particular attention is that of improved international co-operation to develop policy instruments and technologies to meet the needs of developing countries. Material efficiency has not received the attention that it deserves. Consequently, there is a dearth of data on the qualities and quantities of final consumption, thus, making it difficult to formulate policies. Available data, however, suggest that there is a large potential for improved use of many materials in industrialized countries.
Download or read book Policy Implications of Greenhouse Warming written by National Academy of Engineering and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1992-02-01 with total page 945 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global warming continues to gain importance on the international agenda and calls for action are heightening. Yet, there is still controversy over what must be done and what is needed to proceed. Policy Implications of Greenhouse Warming describes the information necessary to make decisions about global warming resulting from atmospheric releases of radiatively active trace gases. The conclusions and recommendations include some unexpected results. The distinguished authoring committee provides specific advice for U.S. policy and addresses the need for an international response to potential greenhouse warming. It offers a realistic view of gaps in the scientific understanding of greenhouse warming and how much effort and expense might be required to produce definitive answers. The book presents methods for assessing options to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, offset emissions, and assist humans and unmanaged systems of plants and animals to adjust to the consequences of global warming.
Download or read book Atlas zur Raumentwicklung written by and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Potential for Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement in the Long Term written by J. de Beer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book does not give a prediction of what the efficiency will be of the energy use of industrial processes in the future. However, it does give an exploration of limits to the efficiency of current processes and an indication of what might be achieved if new technologies can be developed. At the Department of Science, Technology and Society of Utrecht University research had been done to the opportunities for improvement of the energy efficiency in the short term since the 1980's. This had resulted in a comprehensive database on energy efficient measures. This database and a possible application are described in Chapter 3 of this book. The use of the database induced new research themes around efficiency improvement, e.g. concerning barriers for implementation of measures. It was around 1993 that I did a preliminary study to the potential for efficiency improvement in the long term. Historical analysis had shown us that the short term potential stayed constant over the years. It seemed to be replenished by the introduction of new technologies. This lead to the question whether there are limits to the efficiency, taking into account both thermodynamic considerations and ideas on the development and dissemination of new technologies.
Download or read book Improving Energy Efficiency Through Technology written by R. J. G. M. Florax and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Increasing energy-efficiency is important because it offers the prospect of partly solving our climate change and energy security problems without pain. This book sheds further light on the issue, focusing on energy-extensive economic activities which, by sheer volume, collectively use a substantial amount of energy. That simple fact alone makes this book worthwhile, but there are many other gems.' Richard Tol, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Ireland This innovative book explores the adoption of energy-saving technologies and their impact on energy efficiency improvements. It contains a mix of theoretical and empirical contributions, and combines and compares economic and physical indicators to monitor and analyse trends in energy efficiency. The authors pay considerable attention to empirical research on the determinants of energy-saving investment including uncertainty, energy-price volatility and subsidies. They also discuss the role of energy modelling in policy design and the potential effect of energy policies on technology diffusion in energy-extensive sectors. Written from a multi-disciplinary perspective, this book will appeal to academics and graduates in the areas of energy-saving technologies, energy economics and natural resource economics, as well as policy-makers particularly those in energy policy.
Download or read book Resource Efficiency and Climate Change written by United Nations and published by UN. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The International Resource Panel (IRP) was established to provide independent, coherent and authoritative scientific assessments on the use of natural resources and their environmental impacts over the full life cycle. The Panel aims to contribute to a better understanding of how to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation while enhancing well-being. The Secretariat is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme. IRP assessments demonstrate the opportunities for governments, businesses and wider society to work together to create and implement policies that ultimately lead to sustainable resource management, including through better planning, technological innovation and strategic incentives and investments. Materials are vital to modern society, but their production is an important source of greenhouse gases. Emissions from material production are now comparable to those from agriculture, forestry, and land use change combined, yet they have received much less attention from the climate policy community. The IPR authors propose looking beyond energy efficiency to reduce global carbon footprint. This report was developed by the IRP in response to a request from the Group of 7. It conducts a rigorous assessment of the contribution of material efficiency to GHG abatement strategies. More concretely, it assesses the potential reduction of GHG emissions from material efficiency strategies applied in residential buildings and light duty vehicles, and reviews policies that address these strategies. The IRP modelling results show that increasing material efficiency can help enhance efforts in moving towards the 1.5° C target set by the Paris Agreement." -- Page 4 of cover
Download or read book Material efficiency in clean energy transitions written by and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book America s Energy Future written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-01-15 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For multi-user PDF licensing, please contact customer service. Energy touches our lives in countless ways and its costs are felt when we fill up at the gas pump, pay our home heating bills, and keep businesses both large and small running. There are long-term costs as well: to the environment, as natural resources are depleted and pollution contributes to global climate change, and to national security and independence, as many of the world's current energy sources are increasingly concentrated in geopolitically unstable regions. The country's challenge is to develop an energy portfolio that addresses these concerns while still providing sufficient, affordable energy reserves for the nation. The United States has enormous resources to put behind solutions to this energy challenge; the dilemma is to identify which solutions are the right ones. Before deciding which energy technologies to develop, and on what timeline, we need to understand them better. America's Energy Future analyzes the potential of a wide range of technologies for generation, distribution, and conservation of energy. This book considers technologies to increase energy efficiency, coal-fired power generation, nuclear power, renewable energy, oil and natural gas, and alternative transportation fuels. It offers a detailed assessment of the associated impacts and projected costs of implementing each technology and categorizes them into three time frames for implementation.
Download or read book Energy Efficient Manufacturing written by John W. Sutherland and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last several years, manufacturers have expressed increasing interest in reducing their energy consumption and have begun to search for opportunities to reduce their energy usage. In this book, the authors explore a variety of opportunities to reduce the energy footprint of manufacturing. These opportunities cover the entire spatial scale of the manufacturing enterprise: from unit process-oriented approaches to enterprise-level strategies. Each chapter examines some aspect of this spatial scale, and discusses and describes the opportunities that exist at that level. Case studies demonstrate how the opportunity may be acted on with practical guidance on how to respond to these opportunities.
Download or read book Sustainable Materials without the hot air written by Julian Allwood and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in its second edition, Sustainable Materials shows how we can greatly reduce the amount of material demanded and used in manufacturing, while still meeting everyone's needs. Materials, transformed from natural resources into the buildings, equipment, vehicles and goods that underpin our remarkable lifestyle, are made with amazing efficiency. But our growing demand is not sustainable. Production of just five materials – steel, aluminium, paper, plastics and cement – accounts for 55% of industrial emissions, and demand for materials will double by 2050. Can we continue to live well but use less materials? So far people have considered the problem with only one eye open, hoping for a magic solution (such as carbon capture and storage). But with both eyes open we have a whole new set of options. Rather than making more materials, we can use them more wisely – with less material, keeping them for longer, re-using their parts and more. These options make a huge difference: we really could set up our children with a more sustainable life, without compromising our own. Sustainable Materials faces up to the impacts of making materials in the 21st century. Drawing on their experiences working with innovative materials as well as the facts and findings of their research, Julian Allwood and Jonathan Cullen provide an evidence-based vision of change that will allow us to make our future more sustainable. Packed with hundreds of colour photos and helpful graphs and diagrams, Sustainable Materials provides a thorough analysis of the problems that we face through wasteful attitudes and the growing demand for materials, as well as an evaluation of practical and achievable solutions for the future. The first edition of this optimistic and richly-informed book was listed as one of Bill Gate's top reads in 2015, and was also chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title by ACRL Choice magazine. This up-to-date, revised edition is perfect for anyone with an interest in sustainability.
Download or read book The Rebound Effect of Material and Energy Efficiency and Their Determinants written by Etem Karakaya and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study presents a comprehensive analysis and comparison of material and energy efficiency performances and their rebound effects, providing insights into their implications for sustainability and climate change policies. Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), we examine material and energy efficiency scores and rebound effects in the European Union (EU) member countries and their major trading partners from 1995 to 2019. Our findings reveal several key insights. Firstly, developed EU countries and affluent trading partners exhibit higher material and energy efficiency scores, while less developed members and partners rank lower. The study highlights the potential implications of the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) for low-efficiency trading partners, which may face substantial penalties and incentivize significant measures to enhance material and energy efficiency. Secondly, a positive correlation is observed between efficiency improvements and rebound effects, suggesting that policymakers should take rebound issue seriously. Thirdly, while energy efficiency scores are relatively higher, material efficiency performances are lower and improving over the years. Finally, the rebound effects of energy efficiency exceed those of material efficiency, implying that energy reduction potentials are largely offset. Therefore, prioritizing material consumption for environmental sustainability becomes crucial due to significant potential for improvement with lower rebound effects.
Download or read book Policy Modeling for Energy Efficiency Improvement in Us Industry1 written by Ernst Worrell and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract We are just beginning to evaluate and model the contributions policies make toward improving energy efficiency. In this article, three recent studies are reviewed. They represent an important step in the analyses of climate-change mitigation strategies. All studies model estimated policy impacts rather than the policies themselves. Often the policy impacts are based on assumptions, as the effects of a policy are not certain. Most models incorporate only economic (or price) tools, which, for estimating impacts, costs, and benefits of mitigation strategies, recent studies have proven are insufficient. The studies reviewed are a first effort to capture the effects of nonprice policies. They contribute to a better understanding of the role of policies in improving energy efficiency and mitigating climate change. All policy scenarios result in substantial energy savings compared with the baseline scenario used; they also result in substantial net benefits to the US economy. Because the industrial sector is the most diverse and, arguably, the most challenging energy-demand sector to model, studying policies for them is no easy task. The challenges, which are many, fall into two categories: appropriate level of detail (i.e., sector, technology, and policy) and representations of decision making. A better understanding of decision-making behavior, technology choice, and policy impact and effectiveness is needed to improve our understanding of the potential effectiveness of future energy efficiency policies as well as to improve policy modeling. With these developments, the current and next-generation policy models and studies have the potential to become richer representations of the industrial sector.
Download or read book Understanding Energy and Energy Policy written by Timothy Braun and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Activists, scientists and policymakers around the world have long argued that we need to find sustainable and secure solutions to the world's energy demands. At issue for citizens worldwide is whether we are scientifically literate enough to understand the potential policy choices before us. Understanding Energy and Energy Policy is a one-stop resource for understanding the complexities of energy policy and the science behind the utilization of energy sources. The multidisciplinary perspective presented in this book is necessary for readers to be able to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of potential energy policies. The book draws on case studies from the global North and South, from countries that are resource poor and resource rich, while providing explanations of the science and politics behind burning fossil fuels, and power created through nuclear energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, wind energy, biofuels and water.
Download or read book Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's economy and lifestyles have been shaped by the low prices and availability of energy. In the last decade, however, the prices of oil, natural gas, and coal have increased dramatically, leaving consumers and the industrial and service sectors looking for ways to reduce energy use. To achieve greater energy efficiency, we need technology, more informed consumers and producers, and investments in more energy-efficient industrial processes, businesses, residences, and transportation. As part of the America's Energy Future project, Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States examines the potential for reducing energy demand through improving efficiency by using existing technologies, technologies developed but not yet utilized widely, and prospective technologies. The book evaluates technologies based on their estimated times to initial commercial deployment, and provides an analysis of costs, barriers, and research needs. This quantitative characterization of technologies will guide policy makers toward planning the future of energy use in America. This book will also have much to offer to industry leaders, investors, environmentalists, and others looking for a practical diagnosis of energy efficiency possibilities.
Download or read book Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Consumption written by H. Herring and published by Springer. This book was released on 2008-11-27 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book challenges conventional wisdom by showing how, in some circumstances, improved energy efficiency may increase energy consumption. Relying upon energy efficiency to reduce carbon emissions could therefore be misguided. This book explores the broader implications for climate change and sustainable consumption.
Download or read book Resource Efficiency written by Paul Ekins and published by UN. This book was released on 2016 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite enormous progress in the past decades towards improving human prosperity and well-being, this has come at the lasting cost of degradation of the natural environment and depletion of natural resources. Meeting the needs of a growing and increasingly affluent population, will require natural resource extraction to increase from 85 to 186 billion tons by 2050. This can cause irreversible environmental damage and endanger the capacity of Earth to continue to provide resources which are essential for human survival and development. Analysis in the report shows that policies and initiatives to improve resource efficiency and tackle climate change can reduce global resource extraction by up to 28 per cent while also boosting the value of world economic activity by 1 per cent in 2050, against the baseline. Such policy actions can also cut global greenhouse gas emissions by around 60 per cent in 2050 relative to 2015 levels. This report has been produced by the UNEP's International Resource Panel in response to a request by leaders of the G7 nations in the context of efforts to promote resource efficiency as a core element of sustainable development. The report conducts a rigorous survey to assess and articulate the prospects and solutions for resource efficiency. It considers how more efficient use of resources can contribute to economic growth, employment and development, at the same time as reducing the world's use of materials, energy, biomass and water, and the resulting environmental impacts. The report documents many examples of best practices for increasing the resource efficiency of different sectors from countries around the world. The challenge for policy-makers is to learn from and scale up these good practices, and to conceive and implement a set of transformative policies that will enable countries to reap the associated social, environmental and economic benefits.
