Isramart : U.S. households could cut emissions sharply -study

Isramart news:
The United States could cut climate-changing carbon emissions significantly over the next decade by getting American households to take actions that require no new laws or regulations and no loss of well-being, a report said on Monday.

A research team led by Michigan State University estimated that 7.4 percent of current U.S. emissions — slightly more than the total emissions of France — could be eliminated in 10 years if U.S. households became energy-efficient by adopting available forms of technology, including more fuel-efficient cars and home heating systems.

The result could help buy time for the environment while the United States and other countries consider longer-term solutions to reduce carbon emissions such as the cap-and-trade strategy now being debated in the U.S. Congress.

The researchers identified 33 specific energy-saving actions ranging from weather-stripping of homes and using slow-flow shower heads to reducing laundry temperatures and driving at highway speeds of 55 mph (89 kph) and under.

The actions would appreciably reduce energy consumption and either cost little or offer attractive returns on investment without requiring changes in lifestyle.

But the study said comprehensive marketing efforts that combine mass media promotions, community-based information campaigns and informal social pressures with financial incentives would be required to induce enough American households to make the necessary changes.

PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN

It pointed to the Obama administration’s ‘cash-for-clunkers’ program as an example of a promotional campaign that can change behavior through marketing, financial incentives and consumer convenience. The rebate program resulted in the purchase of nearly 700,000 more fuel efficient cars and trucks.

‘Our estimates … provide a reasonable initial guide to what can be achieved by active promotion,’ the research team led by Thomas Dietz of Michigan State University wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Direct energy use by U.S. households, including nonbusiness travel, is a leading source of greenhouse gases and accounted for 690 millions tons (626 million metric tonnes) of carbon in 2005. That equals 38 percent of U.S. carbon emissions and 8 percent of global emissions — more than the total emissions of any single country except China.

Dietz, who was joined by colleagues at the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and the U.S. National Research Council, said more energy-efficient habits could cut U.S. household emissions by 20 percent in 10 years.

That would be more than all U.S. emissions from the petroleum refining, iron and steel, and aluminum industries, which are among the largest industrial emitters.

The study said similar savings rates could be achieved in Canada and Australia, where carbon profiles are roughly equivalent to those of U.S. households.

The study sought to gauge the responsiveness of American households by looking at studies of behavioral changes that followed interventions on environmental and health topics.

Researchers also used state, city and community programs implemented in response to the energy crises of the 1970s as a basis for their national estimates.