A History of the Transitions in Energy Service Demand
Even in the face of catastrophic climate and health damage, why is it so hard for us to break our energy consumption habits? To better understand why it is so hard to reduce energy consumption, this talk explores how the demand for energy services has grown and changed over time. Charting the transitions in energy consumption to meet our needs for heat, transportation and light since the Industrial Revolution, this talk shows dramatic increases in net benefits to consumers associated with the transformations in society and lifestyles that mobility and illumination provided between 1850 and 1950. These past transformations highlight the challenges of reducing energy consumption, given that they threaten modern lifestyles.
Date: 5 November 2019, 17:00 (Tuesday, 4th week, Michaelmas 2019)
Venue: Dyson Perrins Building, off South Parks Road OX1 3QY
Venue Details: Gottman Room, Oxford University Centre for the Environment
Speaker: Roger Fouquet (LSE)
Organising department: Environmental Change Institute
Organiser: Anne L Ryan (Oxford Energy Coordinator)
Organiser contact email address: info@energy.ox.ac.uk
Hosts: Professor Nick Eyre (Environmental Change Institute), Dr Philipp Grunewald (University of Oxford, Oxford University Centre for the Environment)
Part of: Energy Colloquia Series
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editor: Anne Ryan