Growth From Emission Cuts | Green Energy News

November 27, 2005 – Vol.10 No.36

GROWTH FROM EMISSION CUTS.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference is now underway in Montreal to hammer out more details of the Kyoto Protocol. It’s not very exciting stuff according to news reports. A U.S. delegation is there, of course, but as a non-signer, they haven’t got much to say.

The Bush Administration, for years now, has been saying that mandatory, law-driven, cuts in greenhouse gas emissions would damage the nation’s economy.

Now the nation’s most populous state says no, at least not in its case. Cuts could actually help the nation’s economy and increase economic growth, not hurt or slow it.

In a joint study between the state of California and the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil - No Reason to Wait: the Benefits of Greenhouse Gas Reduction in Sao Paulo and California - found that Californians produce less than half the greenhouse gas emissions of other Americans because the state has embraced power generated from natural gas and renewables and has aggressively promoted energy efficiency.

The result is that each Californian has saved about $1000 per year between 1975 and 1995 through state efficiency standards for buildings and appliances alone. That efficiency savings has helped the economy grow by $31 billion, an extra 3 percent, compared with business as usual. The energy efficiency business is a growing job creator. The study points to $8 billion in new payroll expected in the industry over the next 12 years.

Study partner Sao Paulo, Brazil has had similar economy-boosting results when cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Ethanol blending there is saving consumers $7.5 billion a year (which they can spend elsewhere in the economy) and a national electricity conservation program has saved $ 5 billion which would otherwise be spent on new power plants.

In short, for consumers, mandated energy savings would be like a tax cut - which the Bush Administration says it likes - that allows consumers to spend more of their own money.

The report, which includes case studies, was conducted by Stanford University scholar Walter Reid and the professional staff from the Sao Paulo Department of the Environment. It was commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Copies are available from the Hewlett Foundation at http://www.hewlett.org/publications/noreasontowait.htm or from State of California at http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/ .

Visit the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change http://unfccc.int/2860.php