As the year 2022 begins, New Brunswick remains a national leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Having stated that important fact, the path forward to ‘carbon neutral’ will require an unprecedented effort of behavioural changes and reduced demand for energy.
Focussing on the fundamentals of energy – there are only two levers at our disposal: Demand and Supply. To reduce supply, and by default emissions related to supply, the single most effective “bang for the buck” remains reducing demand.
This can be done through increased efficiency, reduced overall demand, and by shifting demand to optimize generation of supply.
The most important lever is demand side management. No energy gets produced if there is no demand for it. By reducing demand, whether through increased efficiency, reduction in need, or behavioural changes, will lead to a reduction in supply. New Brunswick must change its behavioural use of energy to effect change in emissions.
Atlantica Centre for Energy encourages the Standing Committee to focus on these fundamentals while drafting specific recommendations on tactics.