Industry Can Substantially Save Energy And Reduce CO2 Emissions

[jpak]

http://www.mees.com/postedarticles/oped/v50n30-5OD01.htm

Substantial industrial energy efficiency potentials remain; government and industry should co-operate to advance indicators analysis, argued Claude Mandil, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) at the launch of Tracking Industrial Energy Efficiency and CO2 Emissions, IEA/OECD, Paris, June 2007 (www.iea.org).

Have you noticed odd changes in the behaviour of your friends and family, such as shunning car purchases in lieu of public transportation and taking action to move to a smaller residence? Probably not. Generally, rising incomes translate into demand for bigger homes and more powerful and larger cars. This poses a problem, since it produces direct emissions from consumer use as well as indirect CO2 emissions.

Indirect CO2 emissions stem from making the products that you buy since the materials incorporated in the products require energy which generates CO2 emissions. These emissions are very significant. Globally about 36% of all CO2 emissions are from the manufacturing industry, 40% from buildings and appliances and 24% from transport. About half of the transport sector emissions are from freight haulage.

Economic growth worldwide is still very dependent on manufacturing. The acceleration of global demand for materials is reflected in today’s record prices for commodities such as copper, nickel, steel, aluminium and plastics.

<more>