Kick the Habit: A UN Guide to Climate Neutrality

Some examples of the effect of individual behaviour on greenhouse gas emissions in France The area of the squares is proportionate to the annual reduction in emissions in million tonnes of CO 2

equivalent.

Housing Investment

Improving the insulation of an existing gas or oil-heated dwelling Possible gain if rehabilitation (at a rate of 3% per annum) of France's 20.2 million gas or oil-heated dwellings improves insulation sufficiently to achieve annual energy consumption of 50 kWh per sq m, compared with 200 at present.

2,34

Building a new gas or oil-heated dwelling

0,26

Possible gain if the 130 000 new dwellings built on average every year, primarily heated using gas or oil, target annual energy consumption of 50 kWh per sq m, compared with 130 at present.

Purchasing a new low-temperature or condensing boiler

0,37

Possible gain if all the 450 000 individual boilers replaced every year are high-performance boilers, compared with only 95 500 at present.

0,034

Fitting a solar-powered boiler

Possible gain if the goal of energy framework legislation to install 200 000 solar-powered boilers a year by 2010 is brought forward to 2005 and continued till 2020.

Buying an energy class A+ household electrics appliance

0,09

1. Relatively low gain as most electricity in France is nuclear-powered. Possible gain if all household electrical appliances replaced annually (9% of total) meet energy class A+ requirements, thus cutting energy consumption by 20% 1 .

Daily life

Lowering the inside temperature by 2°C in winter Possible gain if the inside temperature of all dwellings is reduced by 2°C, corresponding to a 14% reduction in energy consumption.

7,7

Replacing conventional light bulbs with low-energy bulbs Possible gain if all lighting is provided by low-energy light bulbs, which consume five times less energy than conventional bulbs.

0,6

3,5

Regularly maintaining gas or oil-fuel boilers

Possible gain if gas or oil-fuel boilers are regularly maintained, improving overall efficiency by 5%, in the 15 million dwellings concerned.

Optimizing use of washing machine

0,08

Possible gain if all households use the cold-wash programme, thus saving 40% energy, at night, off-peak electricity production emitting less carbon.

KICK THE HABIT THE CYCLE – REDUCE

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