Climate friendly gadgets

Wonder how many consumers in the country realize there are products coming out with energy labeling? Even if they are only a few handful! Like some CFLs, refrigerators, etc. Wonder how many realise what it means... Wonder how stringent the conditions are for obtaining a label…

In the US, recently, a big company found the price high for misleading consumers. It has been asked to compensate owners, modify its inventory and remove the five models mistakenly labeled under the Energy Star program.

The DOE announced that the immediate removal of the Energy Star label was required for LG fridges. According to both parties, LG rated the refrigerators on the basis of a standard test procedure that has been widely used for nearly 30 years. LG said it didn’t take into account different applications of the testing rules for newer technologies used in the latest energy-efficient products.

In what is seen as efforts to meet energy efficiency standards, the US will soon see some models of televisions and computers come out with the energy label showing the lesser consumptions.

Going by a recent MGI study, through a variety of measures ranging from better building efficiency and low-energy lighting to more fuel-efficient vehicles, there is potential to cut world energy-demand growth by more than 64 million barrels of oil a day (equivalent to one and a half times current annual U.S. energy consumption).

Increasing energy efficiency ‘dramatically’ would require annual investments of $170 billion over the next 13 years. But these investments would generate a return of well over $900 billion annually by 2020 through lower energy costs, it says.

Unlike misconceptions that equate such efficiency measures to abstinence and denial of comforts, the study goes on to say that as carbon productivity increases, GDP goes up while emissions go down.

But such changes do require education. There has to be a whole new way of thinking which focuses on maximizing output from devices and structures rather than indulge in largesse and waste. This won’t happen on its own and will have to be driven by incentives. Like reduction tax credit for using technologies that lower power consumption and curb peak power.

Can we hope our government can think new? Think bold?