The low hanging fruit
Are we fighting a losing battle?
As economies develop, as populations grow, and the world becomes increasingly industrialized, energy consumption per person rises. When the standard of living increases, people begin to spend more on energy-consuming services, like cars, laptops, air-conditioning, etc. And when we demand more energy, we pollute more.
Considering that the global GDP only continues to increase, and that the global population will only continue to grow (we’ve been adding a billion people every dozen years since the 1970s!), is environmental destruction inevitable? We surely can’t stop economies from developing and people from being born.
Thankfully, this is not the case.
“The U.S. economy has now grown by 10% since 2007, while primary energy consumption has fallen by 2.4%,” reported Bloomberg New Energy Finance in its 2016 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook.
Energy is decoupling from economic growth. This will be the key to mitigating climate change, while still supporting global economic growth.
