Scott, K orcid.org/0000-0001-7952-0348, Roelich, K orcid.org/0000-0001-6979-5401, Owen, A orcid.org/0000-0002-3872-9900 et al. (1 more author) (2018) Extending European energy efficiency standards to include material use: an analysis. Climate Policy, 18 (5). pp. 627-641. ISSN 1469-3062
Abstract
Existing international emissions reduction policies are not sufficient to meet the internationally agreed objective of limiting average global temperature rise to ‘well below’ two degrees, resulting in an emissions gap. Materials – such as aluminium, cement, paper, plastics and steel – act as a carrier of industrial energy that allows, through trade, the transfer of embodied emissions between sectors and countries. However, the use of materials has been overshadowed by policies focusing on energy efficiency improvements and deployment of a low carbon energy supply. This article argues that policies based on material and product demand can support domestic climate change mitigation and reduce the emissions gap, yet there is little obvious integration between climate and material efficiency policies. The article investigates current ‘emissions flows’ through the EU economy and how much of these are captured and excluded from existing EU climate policies. We analyse the potential increase in emissions coverage that would be achieved by extending EU directives that currently target the energy use of products (cars, buildings and appliances) in operation, to include the emissions required to produce the goods (i.e. embodied emissions). The analysis shows that a greater integration of material efficiency strategies within climate change mitigation policy could significantly increase the emissions coverage of existing product policies.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group thisis an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Climate mitigation; embodied emissions; energy efficiency standards; material use |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC EP/L024756/1 EPSRC EP/N022645/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Jun 2017 14:18 |
Last Modified: | 27 Mar 2019 16:08 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/14693062.2017.1333949 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:117557 |