SEAD (Scottish Education and Action for Development)

In many ways, oil, coal and gas have been miracle fuels – so cheap, and so energy intensive that they have made all kinds of things possible which would have been unimaginable without them. But they have also created an enormously wasteful society. We waste energy through overproducing and overconsuming products we don’t need, mountains of packaging, excessive air travel, heating spaces inefficiently – the list is endless, and it’s happening at every level of society. Governments waste energy, so do local authorities, and so do people going about their everyday lives. An enormous, and achievable, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would happen if we just stopped wasting so much.

There are many ways we can do this in our own lives, but we also need to put pressure on our government at a local and national level to take energy efficiency measures which can really make an impact – and to make sure that pressure is sustained on an international level.

Look for practical solutions in our Resources section

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