On January 19, 2018, at 11: 30, the sixth Half-Moon Book event was held in Conference Room 205 of complex Building. The bibliography for this reading is a new book, Factor Five: Transforming the Global Economy through 80% Improvements in Resource Productivity by Professor Ernst von Weizsacker, Co-Chair of the UNEP Committee on the Sustainable use of Resources.
The reporter Linlin Duan first shared the background knowledge and content of this book, which is another great work by Ernst von Weizsacker on the basis of the Factor Four. The core idea of the book is to achieve sustainable development by reducing the total consumption of resources to one fifth of the current level on the basis of maintaining existing economic growth. To achieve this goal, both technical and policy aspects are required. On the one hand, eight technical strategies, such as improving energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, using renewable energy and material recycling, were applied to five industries. On the other hand, laws, regulations, economy and policies are used to guarantee the promotion and application of these technologies and methods.
Next, The reporter Wanjun Wang shared her reading experience, and she saw the book as a strong support for the idea of sustainable development. In the past two months, we have read Limits to Growth, Industrial Ecology, and Model B, all of which tell us the simple truth that existing development is unsustainable. Not many of these books are written on how to change the status quo. And the Factor Five provides a good answer to this question and portrays a bright future in which we can still save 80% of our resources and reduce emissions while maintaining growth with existing technology alone.
Finally, the whole group discussed the following questions. Firstly, what do you think the cases of energy conservation and emission reductionmentioned in the book are good to achieve, which are not good to achieve? Secondly, combining the techniques and methods mentioned in the book and your own experience, what is the urgent need to improve the resource output rate in China? Thirdly, do you think it is feasible to create a conservation-oriented society? After discussion, it is considered that the energy conservation and emission reduction technologies and methods listed in this book are very practical and feasible, and some technologies have even been widely used in China. But at the same time, the potential of some technologies and methods for energy conservation and emission reduction may be difficult to reach because of the great resistance to reality. It is possible to build an economical society, but it will take time. Especially for developing countries like China, how to advocate economical society on the basis of well-off society is a problem.
