It is hard not to despair just a little when reading the top tips from the world’s energy watchdog that are aimed – at least in part – at helping consumers get through the worst of the cost-of-living crisis barrelling down the tracks with alarming speed.
As the weekend started, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released 10 measures it said could help the world deal with a staggering rise in energy costs.
“Demand restraint is one of the emergency response measures that all IEA member countries are required to have ready as a contingency – and that they can use to contribute to an IEA collective action in the event of an emergency like this current disruption,” it said.
Some of the tips were aimed at consumers, others were aimed at governments. Some could technically be implemented overnight and some might take a long time to roll out.
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However, it is hard to see any of them having a meaningful impact on the budgets of Irish households in the short term, while some of them seem just a little fanciful even in the long term.
The first thing the IEA suggests is people work from home where possible to save petrol.
On paper it might seem like a sensible idea – and taking commuting out of the equation for a great many people would see demand for petrol and diesel fall dramatically.
But it does beg an obvious question.
If someone is working from home to reduce their petrol costs, will their home energy bills not rise?
Let’s say a person commutes 10km to work every morning and then 10km home, a round trip of 20km that amounts to 100km over a working week.
Using back-of a-napkin calculations, a typical car travelling that distance will use around 10 litres of fuel and if the price of a litre of diesel or petrol climbs by 40 cent, then cutting out that expense by working from home could save someone €4 a week.
But if that person has to have the heat on for even a couple of hours more each day and boils their kettle more often and uses some other energy heavy domestic appliances just a little more frequently, then the likelihood is any savings made from not using their car will be wiped out by using their home just that little bit more.
During the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, domestic energy usage in Ireland climbed by in excess of 10 per cent and if that was replicated as a result of people following the IEA suggestions, home energy costs would climb by well over €300 per year for most households.
So, at best, this idea might be cost neutral but in truth it seems many people would be spending more on energy.
The second notion from the IEA was for governments reduce speed limits by 10km/h on major roads.
This is not a terrible idea but it is not something any government should have to be involved in and it is something people could simply decide to do if they so chose.
And this is why it should be done.
A car travelling at 120km/h uses around 20 per cent more fuel than one travelling at 100km/h. The time the higher speed cuts from even long journeys is negligible so it is a no-brainer.
People should also empty their car boots of unnecessary weight, use air conditioning sparingly and remove roof racks, roof boxes and cycle racks unless in use as these act as a drag on a car and cause the cost of motoring to climb unnecessarily.
The IEA is also encouraging states to encourage public transport to reduce oil demand.
That might work in some countries, but most people in Ireland would agree that most parts of Ireland are not terribly well served by public transport.
Moreover, the cost of using it would quickly wipe out any financial savings that individuals might make.
So, unless our Government can make access to public transport more readily available to more people much faster while dramatically cutting the cost of using it for everyone then the IEA’s top tip is unlikely to make any difference here.
The IEA is also suggesting states limit car access to roads in large cities through a number-plate rotation scheme.
It is hard to see such a scheme being rolled out in this country in the short, medium or even long term as the public would be unlikely to support it and the public transport infrastructure would need to be upgraded significantly for it to work.
The IEA is also calling for an increase in car sharing.
Car pooling is not something we have ever been any good at in this country and we don’t have the car pool lanes commonly found in some other countries.
So while it does make a lot of sense, the idea that the entire country will change the habits of a lifetime and start sharing their cars with their neighbours seems just a little fanciful.
Telling Irish people to “avoid air travel where possible” as we head into the summer is not likely to go down well either
While our cousins in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and everywhere else on the European mainland may be able to find alternatives to flying, for Ireland it is either the air, the sea or staying at home.
The IEA also believes states should encourage electric cooking and other options to reduce reliance on LPG and while this might be good news for people with induction hobs or old-school electric cookers as well as the air fryer brigade it won’t be of much help for those with gas hobs.
Some of the other ideas have less to do with consumers and focus instead on what industries, including hauliers, might do.
While suggesting states encourage efficient driving for commercial vehicles through load optimisation and vehicle maintenance and helping industrial facilities switch between different petrochemical feedstocks to free up LPG are no doubt good ideas, it is hard to see either idea having any impact on consumers in the months ahead.
