Pundit. Def: A Shyster Who Traffics in Superstition

T. Friedman's silly gimmick of name it and it shall be yours (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/magazine/15green.t.html) gives the man the title of Pundit in its best Indian sense - a shyster who traffics in ancient superstition.

In fact the Lord High Pontiff's call for more high technology is bunkum of the same order as the politics of let's wait for India and China to reduce their emissions before we do anything. As incumbents are wont, LHP and other commentators concentrate on producing more energy for less pollution. That is some way away, but the 'dark' side of demand management has arrived, and it is best practised in the West where it is cheap, and in poorer countries where it is expensive.
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The reason for the latter is that energy efficient technology for big ticket items is not much more expensive to start with, and is well enough understood to be made in the developed world within five years, so prices will fall further. The reason it will not work in the West is because, as with already emitted emissions, there is not sufficient juice to induce the junking of pre-existing SUV's and inefficient machines, including industrial machinery, and grossly inefficient air conditioning systems and other domestic appliances.

Here are some easy things to do:

1) Home Use
CFL's - even Walmart has heard of them. In Mumbai the payback is sub one year.
Best used in - the USA and other advanced countries - el Cheapos like Indians have been using horrible non compact fluorescent lights for decades to save cash. Some Indian companies are betting the bank on producing CFL's.
Inverter drive a/c's - the US of A, Southern Europe and everywhere in the developing world because there is no installed base to disturb.

Neither will happen in our lifetime in the US because both require government restrictions to overcome corporate greed. Yes Matilda, it costs tiny bits more to make these super gizmo's but then a lot of plants that make not so super gizmo's will have to be junked or upgraded.

Another reason we will not see this happen is that all of these happy things may well reduce GDP. Less electricity used and capital goods at the same price = less GDP.

Remember, 30% of electricity is used for lighting and cooling, so any real reduction could be a sharp drop in GDP growth while being a boon for the earth.

2) Industrial Use
Variable Frequency Drives
Switch from hydraulic to electric power (one conversion less)
Better insulation
Solar air conditioning (available now)

That's another 30% at least off the top from electricity where these applications are used.

Unlike the LHP I do not care what other countries do, nor do I care much about cutting edge research. All of the above are in the public domain or easily available technologies. India, which is where I live most of the time, should simply ban electric bulbs, inefficient motors and all the other paraphenalia of useless pollution (useful pollution is the stuff you cannot substitute easily, like electricity from coal - sorry folks its here to stay).

There are precedents - adoption of Euro III and IV did not kill our car industry - it helped make it.

And the best part of the whole story, at least for India - a set of super energy efficient companies in a world where electricity is about to become as expensive as German labour.