美国国家公共电台 NPR The U.K. Economy Is Growing — But Its Energy Use Is Shrinking

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We're now going to shift over to the United Kingdom, where energy use has been dropping over the past 15 years. But it's been a quiet victory and a mysterious one, as NPR's Camila Domonoske reports.

CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE¹: British electricity use dropped so much over the last decade that it's as if the U.K. shut down its largest coal power plant twice. That's according to the climate policy think tank Sandbag. And it's not just electricity. The country's total energy consumption of all kinds has dropped 10 percent since 2002.

GUY NEWEY: And that's kind of unusual, actually.

DOMONOSKE: Guy Newey used to be a climate adviser² in the British government. Now he works at Energy Systems Catapult, which promotes energy innovation. I asked him why this is happening. Are there just fewer people?

NEWEY: Nope, it's the opposite. The U.K. has had an increasing population.

DOMONOSKE: A slowing economy uses less power. Is the British economy struggling?

NEWEY: Our overall GDP has increased.

DOMONOSKE: It's not tied to skyrocketing costs, and it's not the weather. The decline remains³ if you factor in temperature. And the U.K. is seeing a drop, while Ireland, right next door, is not. In fact, last year, the U.K. was the only country in the EU to see a drop in electricity use. I asked Newey, is it something special about British people? - stoicism, self-restraint.

NEWEY: I mean, you know, we're quite reserved. But that's always been the case. I don't think that's increased or decreased over the last 10 years (laughter).

DOMONOSKE: So what is going on?

NEWEY: The first thing I'd say is it's not perfectly⁴ understood exactly what is happening.

DOMONOSKE: Analysts⁵ do know some of the factors, but even those can be a little confusing. Consider energy efficiency.

JONATHAN MARSHALL: We're getting better insulated homes and better insulated office buildings, more efficient televisions, computers, fridges, freezers, that sort of thing.

DOMONOSKE: Jonathan Marshall is the head of analysis at a think tank called Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. He says efficiency is definitely part of the drop in energy use. But energy standards for appliances are the same across Europe.

MARSHALL: You have energy ratings for fridges that are the same in the U.K., in Poland, in Italy.

DOMONOSKE: And only the U.K. is seeing use drop like this. Then when it comes to homes, it's not like the British government is making a huge insulation⁶ push.

MARSHALL: There isn't really a particularly strong energy efficiency policy in the U.K. at the moment.

DOMONOSKE: It's not a total mystery. Other factors include a shift away from heavy industry, improvements in streetlamps, tightened⁷ standards for boilers⁸ and changing consumer patterns. But added together, they don't quite seem to explain the drop. These solutions are not thrilling.

MARSHALL: It's a lot easier to get, you know, excited about electric vehicles and wind turbines than it is about insulation.

DOMONOSKE: And, Guy Newey says, it doesn't help that there's no one reason for the drop.

NEWEY: Yeah. It's much easier if you can just point to one thing and say, oh, brilliant. If we just did X, it delivers Y benefit, and that's fantastic.

DOMONOSKE: Still, this little puzzle is good news for the policy fight against greenhouse gas emissions⁹. Some people worry that restricting energy use could hurt a country's economy.

NEWEY: What we've seen, I guess, through history, is as people become richer, they tend to buy more stuff, use more stuff and consume more energy.

DOMONOSKE: But remember; the British GDP has been rising. That link between growth and energy use has been broken in the U.K.

NEWEY: The interesting question for kind of wider global energy policy is, can that example be replicated¹⁰?

DOMONOSKE: So countries around the world could grow economically and slash¹¹ emissions if they figure out what Britain is doing right. Camila Domonoske, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF KORESMA'S "EMERALD POOLS")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

5 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

6 insulation   

n.隔离；绝缘；隔热

参考例句：

• Please examine the insulation of the electric wires in my house.请检查一下我屋子里电线的绝缘情况。
• It is always difficult to assure good insulation between the electric leads.要保证两个电触头之间有良好的绝缘总是很困难的。

7 tightened   

收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧

参考例句：

• The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
• His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机，然后又松开了。

8 boilers   

锅炉，烧水器，水壶( boiler的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Even then the boilers often burst or came apart at the seams. 甚至那时的锅炉也经常从焊接处爆炸或裂开。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• The clean coal is sent to a crusher and the boilers. 干净的煤送入破碎机和锅炉。

9 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

10 replicated   

复制( replicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 重复； 再造； 再生

参考例句：

• Later outplant the seedlings in a replicated permanent test plantation. 以后苗木出圃栽植成重复的永久性试验林。
• The phage has replicated and the donor cells have lysed. 噬菌体已复制和给体细胞已发生裂解。

11 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。