No wonder efficiency has moved to the top of the political agenda. On Jan. 10, the European Union unveiled a plan to cut energy use across the continent by 20 percent by 2020. Last March, China imposed a 20 percent increase in energy efficiency by 2020. Even George W. Bush, the Texas oilman, is expected to talk about energy conservation in his State of the Union speech this week.
The good news is that the world is full of proven, cheap ways to save energy. Here are the seven that could have the biggest impact.
Insulate
Space heating and cooling eats up 36 percent of all the worlds energy. Theres virtually no limit to how much of that can be saved, as prototype zero-energy homes in Switzerland and Germany have shown. Theres been a surge in new ways of keeping heat in and cold out . The most advanced insulation follows the law of increasing returns: if you add enough you can scale down or even eliminate heating and air-conditioning equipment, lowering costs even before you start saving on utility bills. Studies have shown that green workplaces have higher worker productivity and lower sick rates.
Change Bulbs
Lighting eats up 20 percent of the worlds electricity, or the equivalent of roughly 600,000 tons of coal a day. Forty percent of that powers old-fashioned incandescent light bulbsa 19th-century technology that wastes most of the power it consumes on unwanted heat.
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