You need to think of what will work for you. Solutions do not usually come in a one-size-fits-all format: they have to be tailored to individual circumstances. Perhaps you have a job which requires you to have a car always available. That cuts down your chances of reducing the energy you use in transport. Perhaps you care for an elderly relative who needs warmth: not much scope there for reducing your heating bills as much as you could otherwise. Choosing what will work for you, of course, goes hand-in-hand with a determination to make as many GHG savings as you can. So, if you cannot do much in one area, you will probably want to make bigger cuts in other areas. And the bottom line remains the same: usually, the more energy you save, the more money you will save too.
Individuals
For many individuals in industrialized countries, food and related services make up the biggest chunk of emissions related to goods. Getting started on this is not too complicated. Buying only the food we need means refrigerators working less hard, less food being wasted and thrown away, less energy being wasted on producing the food and transporting it to our tables. And for those with a garden, how about the revolutionary idea of growing some of our own food? Without necessarily going all the way and installing a pig in every household, or even a few chickens, home-grown food will probably be fresher, taste better and do you more good than what you can buy in the shops. And it will take minimal energy – except your own – to grow it. Comparing emissions from meat production with growing vegetables shows that part of the answer clearly lies in eating more plant material and less meat and processed food. Similarly, wearing clothes until the end of their useful lives – even mending them when they need it – uses much less energy than always being in the vanguard of fashion.
Perhaps it would be helpful here to recap some of the ways you can cut your emissions without having to influence anyone apart from yourself – perhaps on a typical weekday.
You wake up, thrust rudely into consciousness by your electric alarm: time to look out the old wind-up alarm clock which was good enough for your grandparents, and which needed no external energy source to keep it going. By the way, how warm is your bedroom overnight? Would an extra blanket or a thicker duvet let you reduce the temperature by a few degrees? You head for the bathroom: how much energy you use depends on the length and temperature of your shower. You can blow-dry your hair, or just leave it to dry naturally. Breakfast is modest, but boiling water (just enough) for your tea in an electric kettle uses half the energy your stove takes. Do you toast a slice of bread from a loaf or have a part-baked croissant which demands more energy to heat it? Then there’s your fridge: is it rated A+ or A++ for its energy efficiency? How do you clean your teeth – with an electric or a manual toothbrush?
You commute to the office: do you use your car or the subway? And at work, a flat-screen monitor and laptop use less power than desktops and cathode ray tubes.
Lunch next. If you choose meat, that will normally have taken more energy to reach your plate than vegetables or pasta. (Meanwhile, are you sure you have not left your computer – or any other appliance – on standby in your office?)
Meat imports and consumption in 2005
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2007
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Animal proteins: the good, the bad and the ugly
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After work you have a quick snack, perhaps some strawberries. If they were imported by air from South Africa taken almost 6 kg of CO 2 to reach you. But if they came by lorry from Italy, they will account for much less than 0.25 kg. Then it is time for sport: you could go jogging on a treadmill at a fitness centre, but why not save energy by simply running in the park?
You do some shopping on the way home. Are you concerned to choose food that is in season, has not had to be kept frozen for months and is not over-packed in climatehostile material?
Energy cost of out-of-seasons vegetables
Source: ESU Service Consulting (Switzerland), 2006
Home for dinner, and you may decide it is simpler and quicker to thaw some frozen vegetables, instead of cooking fresh ones on the stove. Doing the laundry means still more decisions: do you use a high temperature wash or choose a lower one that takes less power? Do you use the tumble dryer or leave the washing to dry on a clothesline? The evening is for watching TV. Hopefully it has not been on stand-by all day long, together with the DSL modem, the DVD player and the stereo. Before bed you check your emails: perhaps you have read the warning from one industry figure, that worldwide internet usage alone needs the equivalent of 14 power stations for the necessary computers and servers.
Turn it off!
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The net result of the exercise is perhaps surprising. Someone who does not think about the climate impact of the way they live would be responsible for emissions of about 38 kg of CO2for a day like this. Yet somebody who thought hard could enjoy virtually the same level of comfort for a much more modest CO2burden of 14 kg. Often that is all it takes – a conscious effort to think about the impact we are having.
Same level of comfort, same needs, different choices
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Consumer power can work, and so can the power of those determined to consume less or consume in a smarter way. And the choices you make about what you consume will eventually filter through to affect business and industry. You are one individual, but the decisions you make allow you to wield power on a wider stage. If products are made to last, do not replace them. If they are not, do not buy them – and tell the manufacturer why you are choosing something else.
Small organizations
Companies and other organizations – including NGOs – are producers but also major buyers of goods and services, and can direct their purchasing power to move markets towards more climate-friendly products. A growing number of companies, universities, government departments and other groups now have formal purchasing policies that encourage or sometimes require staff responsible for spending decisions to choose the greener options available. Engaging in green procurement means matching conventional performance requirements with environmental ones. This often requires finding new vendors. Some climate-neutral products and services cost more than their conventional counterparts. Using them will probably involve rethinking ingrained habits. But the potential gains are often longer lifetimes and lower running costs.
Large organizations
For industries, specifically those in Asia, there is a website that offers help to companies which want to improve energy efficiency through cleaner production and to stakeholders who want to help them. It is the Energy Efficiency Guide for Industry in Asia, at www.energyefficiencyasia.org. The guide includes a methodology, case studies for more than 40 Asian companies in five industry sectors, technical information for 25 types of energy equipment, training materials, and a contact and information database.
Although the site (developed by UNEP and others) is described as being for Asian industry, much of what it says will be applicable far beyond the continent. It contains a wealth of material, aimed at managers, production staff, suppliers, customers, research institutes and universities, financial institutions, NGOs and even governments. Specific industries covered are pulp and paper, ceramics, chemicals, cement, and iron and steel. The material is available in English and in several Asian languages.
Largest industrial CO2 emitters
Source: JJ Dooley et al., Carbon Dioxide Capture and Geologic Storage, a technology report from the second phase of the Global Energy Technology Strategy Programme, 2006.
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Cities
Cities can exert an influence reducing climate impacts in at least two ways. They are responsible for making sure that in their own administration and activities (their governance role) they are moving towards climate-neutrality as fast as they can. They also influence their citizens’ and other actors’ behaviour, for example industry and transport. This is their role as players in the community. So they can motivate others and enlist them to take part in reducing emissions.
There is plenty individual cities can do to work towards climate neutrality. Just like companies, they can make sure their procurement policies are helping. Where public procurement is concerned, city administrations are big buyers of materials and equipment: paper, computers, furniture, vehicle fleets (not only cars and buses but waste collection vehicles, ambulances, fire engines and so forth).
They are also responsible for equipping public buildings and spaces. Here they can be careful always to apply climate-friendly criteria, for example when it comes to material choices and energy demand. Cities can also make sure their procurement policies specify the use of organic and local food and drinks in cafeterias, schools, city-run operas and theatres, and every other institution for which they are responsible.
Walking the talk
The Swedish city of Växjö – one of the founder members of UNEP’s Climate Neutral Network – proclaims itself the Greenest City in Europe. Its CO2 emissions fell by 30 per cent per capita between 1993 and 2006. In absolute terms, every citizen of Växjö contributes 3.2 tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, far below the European (EU25 in 2000) average of around 8.5 tonnes per person. The city has achieved this result largely by virtue of the large share of biomass used for heating. Nearly 90 per cent of Växjö’s heating comes from renewable sources. Most current emissions come from transport, but this sector has also seen a decrease lately, thanks to increasing numbers of environment-friendly vehicles and greater use of biofuel.
Another innovator is the Dutch city of The Hague, which uses seawater to heat houses. The system extracts seawater and then processes it via either a heat exchanger or a heat pump (depending on the time of year) to supply an entire residential area with space heating and hot water. The energy yield produced by drawing heat from the sea is 1 100 per cent, and that in turn results in a 50 per cent reduction in CO 2 emissions. Users pay no more for this system than for a conventional one.
Engaging others
There are other ways of saving energy. The city council of Freiburg in Germany permits the construction only of low energy buildings on municipal land, and all new buildings must meet low energy specifications. Low energy housing uses solar power passively as well as actively. Besides solar panels and collectors on the roof, which provide electricity and hot water, many passive features of the houses use solar energy for regulating room temperature. Freiburg’s solar policy embraces the entire city. Various companies and public facilities make their roofs available for solar panels, in which the people of Freiburg can buy shares. They are paid for the power sold to the municipal electricity scheme.
The British town of Stretton is providing its citizens with climate change classes to show the 5 000 households how they can reduce their climate footprint. The classes are based on the idea of a slimming club. A computer programme will calculate how much GHG emissions each household is responsible for and then suggest ways of reducing that weight with participants invited back later for an emissions “weigh-in”. They will learn how high their emissions are through a computer programme which will also suggest ways of reducing that “weight”.
Joining forces
C40 (www.c40cities.org) is a group of the world’s largest cities, all of them committed to tackling climate change. Cities are central to the task, particularly as they bear a disproportionate responsibility for causing the problem. Cities consume 75 per cent of the world’s energy and produce 80 per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions. One idea promoted by C40 is the potential of cities to do more together than they can on their own. Pooling their buying power can bring down the prices of energy-saving products and speed the development and uptake of new energy-saving technologies. A consortium being developed by C40’s partner, the Clinton Climate Initiative, will form partnerships with vendors that will lead to lower production and delivery costs and therefore lower prices. Key product categories will include building materials, systems, and controls; traffic and street lighting; clean buses and waste disposal trucks; and waste-to-energy systems.
ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) runs a campaign called Cities for Climate Protection (CCP). It helps cities adopt policies and implement quantifiable measures to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and enhance urban liveability and sustainability. More than 800 local governments participate in the CCP, integrating climate change mitigation into their decision-making processes. Five milestones help local governments to understand how municipal decisions affect energy use and how these decisions can be used to mitigate global climate change while improving the community’s quality of life. Like the generic environmental management system (EMS) approach, the CCP methodology provides a simple, standardized way of acting to reduce GHGs emissions and monitoring, measuring, and reporting performance.
Countries
Decisions taken at country level can influence and motivate actors ranging from the international community to individuals and have a profound effect on GHG emissions and patterns of consumption and production. Whereas cities are in a better position to motivate people and unlock their enthusiasm, countries have the power to induce fundamental changes. One way of motivating people is by offering them ways to save money, yet not all governments have exploited the potential of the taxation system to change behaviour to greener patterns. Governments can, for example, introduce carbon taxes on the use of fossil fuels. They can impose taxes on the extraction and production of minerals, energy and timber and structure them to support more climate-friendly practices. Specific taxes are possible on technologies and products which cause significant environmental damage. Waste disposal, pollution and hazardous wastes can also be taxed. To compensate taxpayers for these new impositions governments can lower other charges, for instance income and sales taxes, and those on property and investment, or simply pay back the amount equally to every inhabitant, as is done in Switzerland with the CO2 tax on fossil heating fuels. At the same time revenue can be used to create incentives and compensate those companies who invest in climate friendly alternatives.
But not everybody is convinced that taxing environmentally-unfriendly products or activities is the way forward. Mark Moody-Stuart, ex-chairman of Shell, told the London Times that merely taxing “gas-guzzling” cars allowed the rich to evade responsibility for climate change: “When we eliminated coal fires in London we didn’t say to people in Chelsea you can pay a bit more and toast your crumpets in front of an open fire. We said nobody could have an open fire.”
New Zealand, one of the founder members of the UNEP Climate Neutral Network, has a public information site (www.sustainability.govt.nz) to enlist and encourage everyone concerned to reduce their footprint. Leading by example, its Carbon Neutral Public Sector Initiative seeks to demonstrate the Government’s leadership on sustainability and achieving climate neutrality. The programme aims to offset the GHG emissions of an initial group of six governmental agencies by 2012. Unavoidable emissions will be offset, primarily through indigenous forest regeneration projects on conservation land. All 34 public service agencies were due to have emission reduction plans in place by December 2007.