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December 9, 1974 – UK Department of Energy launches “energy efficiency” programme

On this day, December 9 in 1974, in the United Kingdom

“The Department of Energy launched a new energy efficiency programme on December 9th 1974, timed to reduce winter fuel use, but also anticipating a review by the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee (Patterson 1978; Anderson 1993)”

Mallaburn and Eyre, 2014

We have been at this “Energy Efficiency” thing (whether to save money or ‘save the planet’) for a long long time, with not all that much to show for it, once you take Jevons Paradox into account.  Oh well.

[The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 330ppm. At time of writing it was 419ishppm- but for what it is now,well, see here for the latest.]

The context was this – 

The first Oil Shock was shocking people and governments into “action” (or, at least, hand-wringing)

Why this matters. 

Energy efficiency – always the bridesmaid…

What happened next?

Stagflation, a second shock, neoliberalism and a collapse in the oil price – bye-bye renewables!!!  See you in another 30 years or so…