Barrett, J orcid.org/0000-0002-4285-6849, Pye, S, Betts-Davies, S orcid.org/0000-0001-5682-4103 et al. (14 more authors) (2022) Energy demand reduction options for meeting national zero-emission targets in the United Kingdom. Nature Energy, 7 (8). pp. 726-735. ISSN 2058-7546
Abstract
In recent years, global studies have attempted to understand the contribution that energy demand reduction could make to climate mitigation efforts. Here we develop a bottom-up, whole-system framework that comprehensively estimates the potential for energy demand reduction at a country level. Replicable for other countries, our framework is applied to the case of the United Kingdom where we find that reductions in energy demand of 52% by 2050 compared with 2020 levels are possible without compromising on citizens’ quality of life. This translates to annual energy demands of 40 GJ per person, compared with the current Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 116 GJ and the global average of 55 GJ. Our findings show that energy demand reduction can reduce reliance on high-risk carbon dioxide removal technologies, has moderate investment requirements and allows space for ratcheting up climate ambition. We conclude that national climate policy should increasingly develop and integrate energy demand reduction measures.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2022. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) > ITS: Sustainable Transport Policy (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number University of Oxford R52953/CN015 EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/R035288/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 14 Jul 2022 09:33 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 23:02 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41560-022-01057-y |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:188686 |