The greenhouse effect: the fallacies in the energy efficiency solution

Abstract

The view that widespread improvements in energy efficiency can by themselves do anything to halt the build-up of greenhouse gases around the globe is fundamentally unsound. It is based on the same fallacies that underlie the claim that energy savings from improving efficiency can substitute for new energy supply. The paper by Keepin and Kats1 claiming that, per tonne of coal not burned, improvements in energy efficiency are more cost-effective than substituting nuclear for coal-fired power is therefore an irrelevancy as far as this debate is concerned. Reductions is energy intensity of output that are not damaging to the economy are associated with increases, not decreases, in energy demand at the macroeconomic level. Even within the boundaries of their own flawed approach, their attempt2 to refute the critique of their thesis made by Jones3 was little more than misdirected grape shot with no discernable connected thread of argument.