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Your efficiency gains will just get eaten up by Jevon's Paradox[1] unless accompanied by a political solution. 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

• jeff303 5y ago
  Perhaps parent commenter is referring to carbon capture or something similar?
• Robotbeat 5y ago
  Jevons paradox isn’t a physical law. It’s an observation. If your technical solution involves making coal or oil more valuable by increasing the amount of work it can do (or reducing the cost to extract it), that is Jevons Paradox. If it’s wholesale replacing it with something else, then Jevons Paradox need not apply.
• epistasis 5y ago
  It's really clear that Jevon's paradox does not currently apply to decarbonizatiom and increased energy availability. As our GDP is rising, energy usage is going down. Our efficiency is increasing, with better gas mileage, more efficient lighting, etc, and total energy use is going down. There are some areas where Jevons paradox applies, but it's where the majority of use of something is gated by cost. Most of our energy consumption is not limited by that these days, in that most people aren't keeping the house colder at winter than they'd like it to save money, or driving less than they'd like because of gas costs. Where Jevons paradox causes lots of problems is with road building. Because by changing the fundamental geography, you're changing the demand side of the equation a ton.
• Zababa 5y ago
  White certificates are a good example of a political solution that directly stops this paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_certificates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_certificates
• agumonkey 5y ago
  Unless culture marks overconsumption as bad