WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wisely directing climate change policy and investment toward energy efficiency has the potential to cut as much as half of the recommended greenhouse gas emissions reductions through 2050 while also generating savings for consumers and businesses, according to the latest analysis of proposed climate legislation.
A flurry of analyses on the economic costs of the
American Clean Energy And Security Act, also known as Waxman-Markey, has been released in recent months with price tags that vary wildly. But the models used to predict how much Waxman-Markey will impact the U.S. economy are flawed and fail to adequately account for the benefit of investing in energy efficiency, according to the
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
Failing to fully account for the benefits of a comprehensive energy efficiency strategy ends up inflating cost estimates of climate change legislation, according to the group’s “diagnostic assessment.”
The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit predicts that directing investment toward energy efficiency can help reduce about half of the needed greenhouse gas emissions reductions between now and 2050. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded global emissions must decline by as much as 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 in order to avoid the most severe impacts from climate change.
The report was released Thursday on the heels of another
widely-publicized report from
McKinsey and Co., which found that bringing a range of existing energy efficiency technologies to scale could potentially meet Waxman-Markey’s emissions reduction target, giving the country up to $1.2 trillion in energy savings, compared to a $520 billion investment over 10 years.
The ACEEE analysis pegs the return of energy efficiency investments “on order of about half of $2 trillion” by 2050.
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