What makes this book attractive is that it begins with the story of how it all began: the misuse and overuse of resources. It then moves on to tackling what can be done now to save whatever is left. There is also an ‘independent assessment” of the arguments and theories that are doing the rounds on climate change in terms of causes, outcomes, mitigation and policies.
For those who are new to this world buzzing with climate jargon and theories, read the first chapter. It dissects the issue of energy efficiency well. It’ll help new converts understand the basic issue of how energy efficiency links up with larger national goals such as poverty alleviation, environment degradation and green house gas emissions.
While the preference traces the beginnings of industrialisation and where the world went wrong, the following chapters take the readers through inter-relations among the environment, energy and economy, the climate, market-based measures as means to unfold climate change mitigation, commericalisation of clean technology and the role of institutions in promoting energy efficiency.
Since clean technologies is what everybody is talking about these days, the chapter on what it takes to commericalisegreen technologies will be of particular interest.
A handy book, the rather bladly titled Energy Efficiency And Climate Change has the strength to draw in a wider range of readers and not only get academics and policy wonks to nose their way through the chapters. Having said that, a line on the book cover: I am yet to fathom what the picture is all about. Couldn’t it have been made a little more interesting? After all, isn’t this the right time to get readers interested in – as some wag put it – hot air?
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