Energy sufficiency

Energy sufficiency (from the Greek : ἐνέργεια activity, energy and from the Latin : sufficere , suffice, sufficient) is the sustainable limitation of energy requirements . Strategies and instruments to achieve this goal can be technical, systematic or cultural.

Sufficiency is necessary as a supplement to energy efficiency , since this often does not reduce energy consumption, but rather causes rebound effects through indirect and direct increases in income and increasing demands for comfort .

Historical background

The starting point for the discussion about sufficiency was the publication The Limits to Growth of the Club of Rome from 1972. In the book, various scenarios are played out that end in a collapse of a growth -oriented civilization due to the overexploitation of natural resources. As a result, theories critical of growth and consumption were developed to counteract this overuse and thus prevent the collapse. These include, for example, the publications Small is Beautiful by Ernst Friedrich Schumacher and Voluntary Simplicity by Duan Elgin. From this the environmental movement developed , which took up the proposed approaches and tried to put them into practice.

Energy policy classification

Three pillars of sustainable energy management

Energy sufficiency is to be seen as one of three pillars to achieve the goal of a sustainable energy economy. Energy efficiency aims at the optimized use of energy in technical applications. Consistency describes the use of renewable energies to meet energy requirements. Sufficiency is the long-term reduction in absolute energy and resource consumption.

Aspects of energy sufficiency

Cultural

The transformation towards energy-saving consumption and usage behavior is to be seen under cultural sufficiency. Furthermore, awareness and acceptance of sufficiency can be achieved through greater transparency. This includes informing consumers about which device is the right one to meet their needs: An improvement in quality of life and comfort through correctly dimensioned technology and short distances must be clearly communicated. Examples of considerations with regard to sufficiency can be locomotion: How far do I have to drive, how often do I have to drive and which means of transport should I use? Or indoor heating: How big does my living space have to be? Which minimum temperature is sufficient for me?

Technically

Technical infrastructures should be redesigned and redesigned in such a way that they facilitate resource-conserving behavior. In the case of technical devices, the focus should be on the absolute energy consumption, instead of placing relative specific efficiency information in the foreground. Since large energy consumption results from oversizing devices, progressive requirements should be set for energy efficiency. For example, a large television would have to be more efficient than a small one in terms of power consumption per screen area. In addition, absolute limits should be set.

Systemic

A paradigm shift away from energy supply towards energy services makes suffcience easier. Instead of buying devices, people should pay for services so that consumers question their needs more. One example of this is car sharing . Politically, energy-saving and environmentally friendly behavior should be supported and energy-intensive behavior should be restricted.

Dangers of sufficiency

If a sufficiently large proportion of households use less energy, then, according to economic theory, demand falls, and with it the price. The low price can lead to the rest of the households consuming more, creating a macroeconomic rebound effect. This effect can also occur between states with the same pattern. That is precisely why common international guidelines, which are binding for all states, are very important for global energy savings.

Sufficiency in other areas

Resource sufficiency denotes the elimination or reduction of certain materials in production and the avoidance of waste . In the mobility sector , sufficiency is to be understood as avoiding traffic and creating the “city of short distances”.

literature

• DH Meadows , DL Meadows, J. Randers, WW Behrens: The Limits to Growth. Report of the Club of Rome on the State of Humanity. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1972, ISBN 978-3-421-02633-0 .
  • Original in English: The Limits to Growth , 1972, ISBN 0-87663-165-0 .
• EF Schumacher: Small Is Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered. Harper Perennial, 1989, ISBN 978-0-06-091630-5 .
• T. Princen: The Logic of Sufficiency. MIT Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-262-66190-4 .
• Energy Sufficiency - Transformation of Energy Demand, Supply Economy, Gender Relations and Sufficiency Meike Spitzner & Sandra Buchmüller, Wuppertal Report 8 (2016)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Douglas Harper: Energy . In: Online Etymology Dictionary . Retrieved May 1, 2007.
2. ↑ sufficere . In: Online Latin Dictionary . Retrieved May 17, 2015.
3. ↑ ifeu - Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg GmbH: Presentation of the research project Energiesuffizienz the BMBF. IFEU, accessed May 17, 2015 . 
4. ^ ^{A b} Lars Arvid Brischke, Laura Spengler: A case for two: efficiency and sufficiency . In: Tense: The Future of Energy Supply (=  Political Ecology ). No. 126 . Oekom Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86581-230-8 , pp. 86–94, here p. 89 .
5. ↑ ifeu - Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg GmbH: Energiesuffizienz- theory. IFEU, accessed May 17, 2015 . 
6. ↑ ifeu - Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg GmbH: sufficiency. (No longer available online.) IFEU, archived from the original on May 21, 2015 ; Retrieved May 17, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ^ ^{A b} Lars Arvid Brischke, Laura Spengler: A case for two: efficiency and sufficiency . In: Tense: The Future of Energy Supply (=  Political Ecology ). No. 126 . Oekom Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86581-230-8 , pp. 86–94, here p. 92 .
8. ^ Sarah Darby: Enough is as good as a feast sufficiency as policy. (No longer available online.) European Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ECEEE), 2007, archived from the original on May 22, 2015 ; Retrieved May 17, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ^ ^{A b} Lars Arvid Brischke, Laura Spengler: A case for two: efficiency and sufficiency . In: Tense: The Future of Energy Supply (=  Political Ecology ). No. 126 . Oekom Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86581-230-8 , pp. 86–94, here p. 90 .
10. ^ ^{A b} Lars Arvid Brischke, Laura Spengler: A case for two: efficiency and sufficiency . In: Tense: The Future of Energy Supply (=  Political Ecology ). No. 126 . Oekom Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86581-230-8 , pp. 86–94, here p. 91 .
11. ↑ ifeu - Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg GmbH: sufficiency. (No longer available online.) IFEU, archived from the original on May 21, 2015 ; Retrieved May 17, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.