Energy Efficiency and its Impact on Living Standards
Energy Efficiency and its Impact on Living Standards
Aleksandar Kovačević, a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, discusses the effects of energy efficiency on living standards in his essay entitled “How Would Greater Energy Efficiency Affect Our Daily Lives?”, written exclusively for the VIP Blog on Sustainable Development of Southeast Europe. He points out that ”systemic changes in managing energy usage could affect all elements relevant to fiscal consolidation: state revenues and expenditures, income of the poorest and administration costs.”
Kovačević further discusses the benefits of energy efficiency for those most affected by financial difficulties, and adds that reducing energy costs would eventually lead to more spending. He also argues that such reductions would help diminish energy-related budget expenditures: “this objective can only be achieved by adopting specific measures, including: adequate decision-making processes in the state-owned enterprises, technical standards, and laws on management of state assets. In any case, this task remains entirely in the hands of the state administration.“
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