Energy efficiency may increase carbon emissions

A fascinating paper (almost, but not quite, incomprehensible to this very amateur economist) cited in James Robertson's newsletter http://www.jamesrobertson.com/newsletter.htm argues that without an 'ethic of sufficiency' and above all monetary reform that removes the role of providing the money supply from the banks, energy efficiency may do little to reduce humanity's environmental impact, and may worsen it.

In the course of the argument there are one or two moments of real clarity where Steve Sorrell breaks into 'plain English', and on p.14 a table contrasting Conventional with 'Green' models of economic development. To hear Cameron and Clegg preaching the accepted wisdom as they describe the need to 'restore economic growth in order to overcome the deficit', it becomes increasingly clear why we need Caroline Lucas in Parliament. Who else is going to challenge this 'accepted wisdom'?What they are describing is a world spinning out of control.

The vicious cycle created by the privatised money supply is described in Section 6, where he says :

". . most of the money in circulation only exists because either businesses or individuals have gone into debt and are paying interest on their loans. While individual loans may be repaid, the debt in aggregate can never be repaid because
this would remove virtually all the money from circulation. The health of the economy is therefore entirely dependent upon the continued willingness of businesses and consumers to take out loans for either investment or consumption. Any reduction in borrowing therefore threatens to tip economies into recession." (p.16)

Or, as Jethro Tull had it :

"In the shuffling madness
of the locomotive breath
runs the all-time loser
headlong to his death.
He feels the piston scraping -
steam breaking on his brow -
old Charlie stole the handle
and the train it won't stop going
no way to slow down"

('Locomotive Breath', from the album Aqualung)

Sorrell's closing paragraphs :

"Over the long term, continued economic growth can only be reconciled with environmental sustainability if implausibly large improvements in energy efficiency can be achieved ..

Instead of encouraging further growth and greater consumption, the benefits of improved efficiency need to be increasingly channelled into low carbon energy supply and improved quality of life. Quite how this can be achieved remains far from clear since a credible ‘ecological macroeconomics’ has yet to be developed. Most importantly, a crucial element of that macroeconomics - namely monetary reform - remains almost entirely overlooked. It is hoped that this paper will at least stimulate some thinking in that direction."

The paper in question is directly downloadable from www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/documents/sewp185.pdf