Are there different routes leading to sustainable consumption?

Panel: Panel 4: Human dimensions of energy use and efficiency

Authors:
Adriaan Perrels, ECN Policy Studies
Christoph Weber, IER

Abstract

To achieve sustainability, efforts at the supply side of an economy- such as changes in energy conversion technologies - are certainly important. Yet, the demand side is a very important force, when it comes to overall efficiency and sustainability instead of efficiency per activity. The demand for goods and services by private consumers, the government and by other countries through export, is the eventual economic driving force for producing all commodities. In this respect private consumption is the most important category, particularly if one reckons that a major part of the exports is, though abroad, eventually also caused by private consumption. This approach is underlying energy&lifestyle models applied to several EU countries, in order to analyse the influence of changing consumption patterns on energy use and emissions.

We conclude that the kind of lifestyle that emerges and the societal structures that it brings with it in economic, social and technological sense definitely makes a difference to the size and composition of the primary energy requirement of a country. It is demonstrated that not only the level of economic growth as such but also the way consumption patterns evolve makes a difference. The study can also be regarded as an attempt to investigate how to move onto societal feasible trajectories leading to sustainable consumption, in particular to identify what are the crucial economic, social and technological conditions to follow such trajectories.