EEI SEMINAR: “Closing the (conceptual) Energy Efficiency Gap” by Tessa Dunlop

Title: “Closing the (conceptual) Energy Efficiency Gap”

Speaker: Tessa Dunlop

Moderator: Raúl Velasco Fernández 

Day: Wednesday, 17th October 

Time: 12.30h

Room: Z/023

 

Efficiency is seen as a crucial policy strategy to reduce energy consumption, secure energy supply, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions among the world’s industrial nations. Although major economies have deployed energy efficiency strategies for over four decades, however, we are missing global targets to reduce overall energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, there is increasing evidence of rebound effects - mechanisms that reduce the expected energy savings from efficient actions – not to mention a significant amount of uncertainty about our actual level of energy savings due to energy efficiency. As it stands, the literature on energy efficiency is dominated by economics and engineering perspectives with a very minimal representation from the wider social sciences. In fact, the concept of efficiency dates back to the 14th century with a rich history bound in culture and values – much of which has not been thoroughly studied. This work delves into the energy efficiency literature to understand multiple perspectives about this complex concept, where tradeoffs exist and where research gaps lie. 

Bio

Tessa Dunlop was a financial television journalist at Reuters in Hong Kong before working as a writer/editor at the European Forest Institute in Barcelona. She undertook a masters degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability at ICTA-UAB and is now undertaking her PhD with the Science and Technology Studies (STS) project at the Joint Research Centre in Ispra. As part of the H2020 MAGIC Nexus Project, her research investigates the framing of sustainability and security issues regarding the water-energy-food nexus and explores new ways to achieve a more robust dialogue at the science-policy interface. Specifically, she is utilizing quantitative and qualitative methods to understand what tradeoffs exist in producing energy efficiency indicators and measures.