People who make small green changes are sometimes criticized by colleagues, friends and
families for their efforts. They are told things like "that won't make a
difference".
As I outlined "
Simple
Green Actions Work" and quite a few other articles; when millions of
people make an effort, however small, it really does add up. Additionally, it
can be seriously de-motivating to rubbish small efforts as people who get on the
green path often start out with small steps before tackling larger issues
relating to the environmental impact in their lives.
For folks in the UK (perhaps it applies elsewhere too) it seems new research has
found simple actions such as switching off lights when not in use have a much
bigger impact that previously thought.
A study published in the journal Energy Policy shows that the figure used by
government advisors to estimate the carbon emission reductions involved with
saving electricity are up to 60 percent too low.
Dr Adam Hawkes from the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial
College London drew on 60 million data points relating to power production
during each half-hour period by every power station in Great Britain from the
start of 2002 to the end of 2009. He also calculated the emissions of each
different type of power station, then calculated the emissions rate that should
be attributed to a small change in electricity demand.
The results show that for 2002-09, emission rates were 0.69 kilograms of carbon
dioxide per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed, 30% more than the average
emissions rate across all power stations and 60% higher than the figure
currently used by UK government advisors, which is currently 0.43 kilograms of
carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour.
You can
read
more about the study here.
To those of you in the UK who have tolerated being scorned for whatever small
efforts you make to reduce electricity consumption - congratulations; stand tall
and proud!
It would be interesting to see the same sort of study conducted in other
countries too. In fact, it's probably very important that it happens as other
countries may be working with figures that grossly underestimate emissions
associated with electricity generation - and that could have huge ramifications
in the battle against skyrocketing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
Looking for more easy ways to cut back on electricity use? Check out my
tips
for saving electricity.
