Transition to Energy Efficiency has been stalled due to COVID-19

 

Photo: Medium

The economy is in shambles, with the COVID-19 virus touring the world, wreaking havoc on the planet's citizens.  As a result, Black Friday sales are suffering, as are Christmas sales, which are approaching us quickly.  What does this lack of sales or economic slowdown suggest for other areas of the world?

One area is construction.  Surprisingly, housing construction slowed down at the beginning of the pandemic but is now resuming slowly. Road improvements, construction on the road has increased slightly during the pandemic, with traffic decreasing as people are quarantined to their residences.  Other industries have not fared as well and continue to see a slowdown or potential shutdown.

With Congress refusing to support aid packages, business as usual has stalled tremendously.  That will have a ripple effect down the road.  As for the transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy, the momentum has slowed.  Recent reporting by Politico Energy has shown that the International Agency for Energy has stated that the transition toward renewable energy slowed over the course of the COVID-19 virus:

ENERGY INEFFICIENT: Countries are expected to post slow progress on energy efficiency across the globe this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the International Energy Agency's latest energy efficiency report released this morning. "As a result of the crisis and continuing low energy prices, energy intensity is expected to improve by only 0.8% in 2020, roughly half the rates, corrected for weather, for 2019 (1.6%) and 2018 (1.5%)," the report said — well below the level needed to achieve global climate and sustainability goals.

"Together with renewables, energy efficiency is one of the mainstays of global efforts to reach energy and climate goals. While our recent analysis shows encouraging momentum for renewables, I'm very concerned that improvements in global energy efficiency are now at their slowest rate in a decade," said Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, in a statement.

Investments in new energy-efficient buildings, equipment and vehicles are also expected to decline this year, mostly because of declines in economic growth and income uncertainty among consumers and businesses. Sales of new cars are expected to drop more than 10 percent from 2019, in turn keeping the overall vehicle fleet older and less efficient, the report said, although the share of electric vehicles in new car sales is expected to grow to 3.2 percent, up from 2.5 percent last year.

This is not surprising given the slowdown of the entire economy.  Fewer people are working internationally.  Therefore, shipping supplies and incorporating them into changing the current infrastructure has slowed down too.  Add into the mix a lack of federal dollars from Congress, and the result is a transformation on hold.  Which is sad.

Although, the real devastating loss is the nearly 275,000 people in the United States and the deaths of other countries.  The lack of federal action has had a lasting effect so far this year.  In an upcoming blog post, the topic of the ripple effect of misinformation will be addressed.

The world's expectations toward combating climate change and other drastically needed measures must be managed accordingly with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In time, the world will return to a new normal.  That new normal might entail greater momentum toward combating climate change.  As the world is noticing how 'inaction' leads to a terrible result. 

Pay attention and take action at all levels as possible.  Congress take action now.  People are out of work and need financial assistance.  Local governments need financial assistance to fund unemployment benefits.  These small local governments are not allowed to run monetary deficits like the federal governments.  That means deficits equate to cuts - major cuts in other areas.  Where is the money Congress?

This is not a Red State or Blue State issue.  The COVID-19 virus does not discriminate against the partisan position.  Get your act together and act!