Energy Efficiency Can Buy Five Years for Climate Deal

Adopting measures to promote energy efficiency can buy the world an additional five years to seal a climate-protection deal, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency during its World Energy Outlook presentation in London.

Under current policies, nations need a climate agreement by 2017, when energy infrastructure will lock in all emissions allowable by 2035 at a level consistent with preventing dangerous global warming, the agency said. Adopting efficiency measures could allow the world to keep temperatures from rising 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit), the IEA said.

Total emissions from energy in 2020 are estimated to be 32 billion metric tons under the Efficient-World Scenario, which assumes that all economically viable improvements are made and regulators introduce measures to overcome barriers to efficiency, according to the IEA.

That’s 7.5 percent less than under the New Policies Scenario, the agency’s central scenario that assumes nations adopt announced policies for climate protection and energy security.

So far, countries have failed to agree whether to extend or replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set emissions targets for richer nations through 2012.

To view the full Bloomberg article referenced in this article, click here

To view the IEA’s World Energy Outlook, click here

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