“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.”
My own reflection, or extension, on this is to refer to a quote by an economist, thereby showing that not all economists are hell-bent on unfettered economic growth. Quote from Peter Victor, from "Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster" (2008):
"The dilemma for policy makers is that the scope of change required for managing without growth is so
great that no democratically elected government could implement the requisite policies without the
broadbased consent of the electorate. Even talking about them could make a politician unelectable.
Dan Staniaszek (BPIE):
Only deep renovation of buildings and rapid decarbonisation of energy can deliver 90% CO2 emission reductions by 2050.
Carbon Leapfrog highlighted some important developments, including:
- Ofgem Project Discovery (2010)
- Energy Demand Research Project (2011)
- Establishment of DECC EEDO (2012)
- Cabinet Office Behaviour Insights Team
- Smart Meters as a pre-cursor to a Smart Grid
- DEFRA's "4 Es" framework
- The MINDSPACE tool
- NERN energy demand reduction research
- (from his comments about Electricity Market Reform within the Energy Bill) - Capacity payments might secure gas generation but won't support demand-side measures, for example Smart Grid and energy efficiency - he argued for 'public good' capacity payments to be developed, for example incentivising demand reduction