Excerpt
from Global Warning: The Last Chance for Change
by Paul Brown and Gerd Leipold
For individuals, apart from a strong desire to reduce the dangers of global
warming both for future generations and for ourselves, there are other
incentives. For the first time the cost of energy is beginning to make people
think twice about the sort of car they buy and how much they need to heat and
cool their homes. North Americans use two to three times more energy per capita
than other highly developed countries like France, Germany, England, and Japan.
Although Canadians sometimes console themselves by pointing out that they
produce 2% of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions, they are one of the worst
offenders per capita for energy consumption.
One way of making a contribution is to buy green electricity. At least 50% of
electricity customers have the option to purchase renewable electricity directly
from their power supplier. All customers have the option of purchasing renewable
energy certificates that allow you to contribute to the generation of clean,
renewable power, even if you can't buy it directly.
Generating your own electricity or hot water at home is a feasible option almost
anywhere in the world and is becoming more economically viable every year. To
encourage the trend, the U.S. Energy Policy Act recently implemented a 30% tax
credit for installing solar water heating systems. Over much of Europe and North
America, micro-wind turbines plugged into the home energy supply are also
becoming a sensible option to draw free electricity from the elements. There are
already a number of products on the market, and these are getting better all the
time. Governments are slowly altering the regulations to make this a more viable
option.
Those lucky enough to have access to a river or a stream could try
mini-hydropower. Since technologies like solar power have a 20-year guarantee
with them and will last far longer, many people regard the investment in
renewables as a form of self-reliance, a sort of pension fund of free power.
There are other ways of gaining energy from the environment like ground-source
heat pumps. This is a way of extracting the Earth's natural heat by using a heat
pump to raise the temperature to warm your home. Currently the payback period
for a ground-source heat pump does not justify the capital cost unless you
intend to stay somewhere for a long time or have one installed with new
construction. Having your own source of electricity or heating is, however, a
good selling point for a property.
But it remains true that rising energy prices are the greatest driver for
change. It has been said many times, but it is worth repeating, that doing
something about climate change is a massive boost to the economy rather than the
opposite, as President Bush and the fossil-fuel lobby claim. This boost applies
to individual households as well as nations. It is bizarre that governments,
charged with looking after the public welfare, acknowledge this but still seem
incapable of putting policies in place to take advantage of it. Finally,
however, we are seeing the seeds of change.
Germany is a shining example of what can be done. In 1998 Germany began a
100,000 Roof Program, which gave people l0-year loans at reduced interest rates
to buy photovoltaic systems. In five years the target was reached, and Germany
had a competitive solar power industry. As well as boosting solar power, the
German government at the same time embarked on encouraging wind power and leads
the world in installed capacity. More recently, the government decided to bring
all of its older properties up to modern energy efficiency standards at the rate
of 5% a year. In 20 years all of the older housing, mostly in the former East
Germany, will be brought up to modern standards. This is a classic example of
how jobs can be created where they are most needed, housing stock improved, and
fossil-fuel imports reduced, all at the same time. Reducing Germany's
greenhouse-gas emissions and avoiding the need to replace the country's aging
nuclear reactors are two other advantages. Germany has the good fortune to have
one of the most environmentally aware populations in the world. The result is
that individual voters are helping to drive the changes by buying into the new
technologies in large numbers.
That is also true in California. The state's $2.8 billion Million Solar Roofs
program takes a similar approach to Germany's. It mandates that new home buyers
must be offered solar panels as a standard option and offers cash incentives on
solar systems. These incentives, combined with federal tax incentives, can cover
up to 50% of the total cost of a solar panel system. The goal is to create 3,000
megawatts of new solar-produced electricity by 2017, moving the state toward a
cleaner energy future and making solar power mainstream.