Awhen the effects of climate change are no longer debatable, the need to limit CO emissions2 in the atmosphere has become a matter of course for many countries. This involves drastically reducing the use of fossil fuels by replacing them with energies that emit little or no CO2. In a few decades, most of our consumer goods will have to be decarbonized.
This revolution must be encouraged by effective tools that cannot be supported only by States, regulatory or citizen decisions, it must be assumed by all economic actors. In this perspective, it is essential to know the quantity of carbon energy necessary for the manufacture of the products and services that we use.
What are the carbon energy prices? We only control what we measure. Individuals, companies and States need indicators allowing them to select products and services favoring carbon-free or energy-efficient energies. A proposal to bring decisions closer to consumption players is to systematically associate the cost of carbon energy (Eca) with the price of each product purchased.
Tools to calculate the energy cost
This cost must be calculated as completely as possible, integrating all the by-products and means used for manufacturing and making it available to the end user. This concerns the energy needed to supply the manufacturing machines, that used by these machines, that of the raw materials, the transport of all the constituents, the deliveries.
The final energy cost can only be calculated after evaluating the costs of all the intermediate carbon energy products. It will be all the lower as the contribution of carbon-free energies, in particular renewable ones, is significant in the manufacturing processes.
Carbon-free energies result from processes where the energy produced is greater than the initial carbon energy needed to manufacture the production systems. The different carbon-free energy sources (wind, solar, hydraulic, geothermal, nuclear, etc.) must be compared and given preference according to this energy balance.
Become as efficient as a natural ecosystem
The renewable nature of these energies must also be evaluated with a renewal period to be specified: a hundred years, a thousand, a million years? In this perspective, the systematic recycling of raw materials is an essential condition for the long-term habitability of our planet. We must become as efficient as a natural ecosystem.
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