Irrational incandescence

People can’t be bothered to make easy energy savings

SOME ways of cutting carbon are cheaper than others. So, at different carbon prices, different sorts of methods of abatement become worthwhile. Vattenfall, a Swedish power utility, has tried to quantify which ones would be worth undertaking at what price (see chart 3).

The result is a testament to economic irrationality. The measures below the horizontal line have a negative abatement cost


Lighting, for instance, accounts for some 19% of the world’s electricity use. A standard incandescent light bulb costs around