Gadgets and Gigawatts: Policies for Energy Efficient Electronics

Most people would be able to count between 20 and 30 electronic gadgets scattered around their own homes, from televisions to battery chargers. By 2010, there will be over 3.5 billion mobile phonesubscribers around the world, 2 billion TVs in use and 1 billion personal computers.

Environmentally-friendly investments form part of many recently launched recovery programmes. With the right policies, they could achieve growth and a cleaner planet as well.

Pressure is mounting to arrest climate change, so it's hardly surprising that people around the world are being urged to use public transportation. After all, an overall strategy that includes getting people to give up their trucks and cars to use electric trolley buses, tramways and rail can help make a real dent in pollution, traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. But try telling that to Australians living in the outback, long miles from the nearest bus station. Even most Japanese, who have access to some of the world's best high-speed rail links and urban mass transit, own some type of private vehicle.

In the current financial crisis, risk-weary investors worry more about keeping their own boats afloat than in pumping money into a sector noted for high upfront costs, long pay back periods and low rates of return.

Water, is as essential to human activity as air. When cities or societies neglect water, they face collapse. The discussions and analyses emerging from the current economic crisis focus on what went wrong, how to stop the downward spiral, and how to create a better society in the future. But one thing is missing in all the talk of short-term stimulus packages and developing “green growth” economies and that is water.

A Check-list for Public Action has been developed by the OECD and its partners to assist governments considering engaging with the private sector in the water sector. It is organised around the OECD Principles for Private Sector Participation in Infrastructures–some 24 principles grouped under five points that highlight sector-specific features, government considerations and available tools and practices:

Humanity has few stranger monuments than the moai of Easter Island. Weighing up to 270 tonnes, these huge figures, like the pyramids of ancient Egypt, are all that’s left of what must once have been a creative and complex society–but a society that also used its resources unsustainably, effectively destroying the ecosystem base of its island home.

With energy demand set to rise and pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, what is the potential of nuclear energy to expand? That depends, says the new Nuclear Energy Outlook from the NEA. The authors suggests two scenarios to 2050: a low expansion scenario whereby currently declared intentions are not fully realised, leading to limited expansion, with most new plants simply as replacement; and a high growth scenario, based on current plans and government statements.

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is 50 years old. It predates the actual OECD itself, having started out in 1958 as a division of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation. It has since grown to become a global body spanning four continents. What does its future hold?

The UN Climate Change conference in Poznán, Poland in December ended with a mixed scorecard. There was agreement to move to the next level of negotiations, and some clarification on outstanding issues, but little substantial forward movement.

Concerns for the world economy were already building when OECD governments met for the annual Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM) last June.

Financial market turbulence and climate change also featured as headline issues at this year’s OECD Forum (www.oecd.org/forum2008). The Forum is civil society’s chance to influence “OECD Week”, and is held in conjunction with the annual ministerial meeting.

Improving the diversity of biological habitats and ecosystems is a vital goal in itself, yet policies to encourage biodiversity, like most legislation, will have both supporters and naysayers. Limitations on land use to protect biodiversity can sometimes reduce income, but have broad benefits for the general public.

How to be green and competitive was the centre of attention when environment ministers of OECD countries met at the end of April for the first time in four years. How to fight climate change and maintain competitiveness is a question that concerns many countries outside the OECD too, and the governments of four candidate countries for OECD membership–Chile, Estonia, Israel and Slovenia–participated at the conference, as did Brazil, China, Indonesia and South Africa, four countries with whom the OECD is strengthening its relations in a programme of “enhanced engagement”.

With the world’s attention focused on climate change, the main question is how can global carbon emissions be reduced effectively? There is no single solution, which is why we must look seriously again at the importance of forests, in particular at an approach known as Reducing Emissions from tropical Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), and the incentives needed to achieve it.

We hear again and again that we must choose between having a stable climate and having a strong global economy. This is a false choice.

Harsh financial reality often rides roughshod over good intentions when it comes to corporate and national balance sheets. Climate change is no exception, for though it may rouse worldwide concern, it also makes people uneasy because of how much it might cost and who should pay.

The 2008 OECD Ministerial Council Meeting and Forum, the high points of the OECD calendar, could not be more timely. The issues we will be dealing with and the policy responses we will discuss should pave the way for a better world economy. Christine Lagarde, the minister of economy, finance and employment of France–the OECD’s host country–will chair the ministerial meeting.

Some 90% of world trade in tonnes is carried by ship, and containers represent 70% of total maritime trade by value. Per kilometre, shipping is one of the lowest emitting freight transport options around; at 10-15 grammes per tonne-kilometre, it is lower than rail (19-41g/tkm), trucking (51-91g/tkm) and aviation (673-867g/tkm). But the carbon footprint of the sector as a whole is as large as some major countries.

On a single busy day in the summer of 2007, 3.2 million people took to the skies above Europe in 33,000 flights which covered a total distance of 34 million km. That’s 42 billion passenger kilometres generated in just one day of European air traffic movements.

Impressive though these numbers appear, they are in fact expected to double shortly after 2025, assuming that the demand forecasts hold true and that the capacity issues across the European air traffic system are solved.

If CO₂ emissions from transport cause climate change, why not encourage more cycling? This is precisely what places like Brussels, Copenhagen, Vienna and Berlin are starting to do. One much talked about initiative is in Paris. As the home of cycling’s greatest race, the Tour de France, you would be forgiven for thinking the French always loved cycling. Yet until last year, cyclists and bicycle lanes were a rarity in the capital.

With aviation growing in terms of the number of planes operating and passengers taking to the skies, the industry is engaged in an important and candid dialogue—how to continue to grow responsibly, while further reducing its impact on the global ecosystem

The urgency of reducing fuel consumption rates while transport moves towards massive development over the next two decades, notably among developing economies, is clear. Any weapon counts as part of the overall package. Enter “ecodriving”.

Would adding US$1,500 to the price of a new car be enough to help halt climate change? That’s what US and EU experts broadly agree on as the average price tag for new technologies coming on stream to make cars more fuel-efficient and climate friendly. But what does that price tag entail?

As the UN called recently on the world’s governments in an “extraordinary emergency appeal” for some $500 million to avert a food crisis in poor countries, many people were placing some share of the blame squarely on strong demand for grains from the biofuel industry.

Transport is a major contributor to CO2 emissions. But can policymakers make a difference? We asked Anu Vehviläinen, Finland’s minister for transport, and chair of the first International Transport Forum in Leipzig in May 2008.

Any serious attempt to deal with climate change must involve transport. Transport accounts for 13% of all world greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, though this figure takes into account CO₂ sources other than fuel combustion, such as forestry, land-use and biomass burning. A look at CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion only shows the transport sector accounts for about 23% worldwide and about 30% in the OECD area.

Although the environment is high on the international policy agenda, development aid for the environment has declined in relation to total aid since 1996. This trend comes despite an increase in overall aid funding: from 2004 to 2005, total official development assistance (ODA) rose 32% to a record high of US$107.1 billion, though eased back somewhat in 2006 (see development setback news brief).

What do sports shoes, cars, processed foods, cooking utensils, buildings, roads, medicines, mobile phones and the computer this article was written on have in common? A simple answer is chemicals.

Among the environmental threats we face today, four require urgent policy action: climate change; biodiversity loss; water scarcity; and health impacts of pollution. Here are some key messages that are closely scrutinised in the 2008 OECD Environment Outlook.

It is easy to call for urgent action on the environment, but hard to know where to start. A pragmatic approach would be to bundle different policy choices into coherent packages to suit government priorities and ambitions.

Economic activity, technology, population dynamics, globalisation and urbanisation: understanding the drivers affecting the world’s environment and how they interact is important for identifying policy responses that might work. Cities and buildings are a good starting point.

Apart from some optimistic claims that global warming will benefit, say, vineyards in the Thames Valley, most readings of the environment give little cause for cheer. Nor is climate change the only threat. Humanity’s ecological footprint is expanding at an unsustainable rate. Rampant urbanisation and farmland are threatening the biodiversity we all depend on. Air and water pollution are damaging health in all countries: the list goes on.

Climate change is a pressing challenge, requiring leadership and determined action. At the same time, people are concerned that policies do not put them at an economic disadvantage or unnecessarily undermine their welfare.

Can governments balance these concerns? The OECD’s Environment Policy Committee meets at ministerial level on 28-29 April 2008 under the theme of global competitiveness. Some non-OECD developing countries will also participate, as will stakeholders from business, labour and civil society.

A 50% rise in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, higher temperatures, with more droughts and storms harming people, crops and buildings; more animal and plant species becoming extinct under expanding farmland and urban sprawl; dwindling natural resources; a billion more people living in water-stressed areas by 2030, with more pollution, disease and premature deaths ahead.

For transport, a major contributor to greenhouse gases, the challenge to reduce emissions is immense, particularly as most forecasts see transport activity doubling or tripling in the next 30 years.

OECD Observer No 266, March 2008

The UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in early December 2007 may have raised new hopes of progress, but as everyone knows, dealing with climate change will require more than just political goodwill. Providing for abundant, affordable, clean energy will require considerable investment in new power generation–more than US$11 trillion to 2030, based on an estimate in the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2006.

More than three times the number of people around the world could be exposed to coastal flooding by 2070, largely because of climate change, a new report argues. With urban development along coasts increasing, an estimated 150 million people–up from 40 million people today–could be exposed to a one in 100 years coastal flood event.

The emergence of China and India on the world economy still unfolds. Lifestyles are evolving fast, and that means more demand, more energy consumption and more greenhouse gas emissions. But what of the impact on climate change?

The environment, particularly climate change, features high on the agenda in OECD business in the months ahead.

“Environment and Global Competiveness” is the theme of the 2008 OECD environment ministers meeting (Meeting of OECD Environment Policy Committee at Ministerial Level), which will take place 28-29 April. Among the highlights, ministers will discuss the results of the OECD Environmental Outlook to 2030, to be released on 5 March. Policy discussions will likely touch on environmental priorities for the coming decades, environmental co-operation with major emerging economies, competitiveness, eco-innovation and climate change.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference in Bali in December 2007 was high in political stakes as well as emotion. But did it produce a result and what more might be done? New Zealand’s climate change ambassador offers his views.

Did you know that over three quarters of a million people die prematurely around the world every year because of outdoor air pollution? Many of these deaths and their related costs may be avoided with appropriate environmental policies.

Welcome to this special online focus on climate change, in view of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, 3-14 in December. "Ambitious policies to tackle climate change should lead to a structural shift in the economy – away from carbon-intensive activities. So the question that remains is: how can this transition be managed in an economically efficient and socially responsible manner? We should not exaggerate the cost of change. Action is affordable."

Energy consumption, and in particular the burning of fossil fuels, is the main source of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. But energy is also a fuel for economic growth, particularly in the fast developing economies of the world. The challenge is to maintain economic growth, while reducing the carbon-content of energy and increasing the efficiency of its use.

Market-based credits can help control emissions alongside other instruments, though the system needs more work. And time. 

Investment in clean technologies can help achieve a wide range of environmental objectives, from mitigating climate change, to controlling air and water pollution, and enhancing resource efficiency in general. Indeed, many governments now see technological innovation as a key channel through which they can lift their economies onto a more sustainable path. But what role can public policies play in encouraging such innovation?

Satellites are not just about communications or defence, but can help us understand if not resolve some difficult environmental challenges, including climate change. They are investments in innovation whose benefits for humanity should speak for themselves.

Globalisation is exerting pressure on the environment, but it may also provide solutions. Could green be turned to gold? Climate change, melting polar ice, rising sea-levels, unpredictable weather patterns, drought, rampant urbanisation, demographic explosions: the list goes on. Many people blame globalisation for these ills, and it is true to say that increased economic pressures inevitably leave a bigger footprint on our planet.

“You cannot really manage the environment without a strong economy.” The remark seems oddly appropriate, sitting in an office overlooking the expansive woodland of the Bois de Boulogne, a “green lung” in the wealthy if congested west of Paris.

Most surface freight transport takes place by rail and road, but with environmental and cost pressures rising, attention is again turning to inland water transport. In the US for instance, inland waterways carried some 500 billion tonne-kilometres of freight in 2003; roads carried three times more, and rail four times.