---
title: "We Could Cut Energy use in Half and Still Give 10 Billion People “Decent” Lives"
description: "Research suggests that restructuring global society could grant every human on Earth a decent quality of life while cutting energy use to 1960s levels."
date: "2020-10-01"
modified: "2020-10-01"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/cut-energy-half-give-10-billion-people-decent-lives"
categories:
  - "Energy"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "climate change"
  - "energy"
  - "environment"
  - "the digest"
---

# We Could Cut Energy use in Half and Still Give 10 Billion People “Decent” Lives

![Research suggests that restructuring global society could grant every human on Earth a decent quality of life while cutting energy use to 1960s levels.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/cut-energy-half-give-10-billion-people-decent-lives.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Image via Pxhere\</em\>*

## Global Rebalancing

While [politicians reject](<https://futurism.com/senators-opposing-green-new-deal-fossil-fuel-cash>) climate initiatives like the Green New Deal for their aggressive ambition, it turns out that it's within our means as a species to cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half — and still provide a [pleasant quality of life](<https://futurism.com/climate-apartheid-rich-survive>) to every human on Earth.

New research found that, if we fixed inefficiencies and structural inequalities in global society, 10 billion people could enjoy a "decent" quality of life while only using as much energy as much as we did back in the 1960s, *[Earther ](<https://earther.gizmodo.com/we-can-use-less-energy-and-still-have-good-lives-1845230817>)*[reports](<https://earther.gizmodo.com/we-can-use-less-energy-and-still-have-good-lives-1845230817>), all of which could be provided by renewables. In other words, the researchers claim that slowing climate change is both [possible and feasible](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-total-transition-clean-energy-possible-2050>).

## Shifting Priorities

For much of the world, this quality-of-life-rebalancing would be an improvement, [according to the research](<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378020307512?via%3Dihub#!>), which was published Tuesday in the journal *Global Environmental Change*. But for wealthy nations and [especially the U.S.](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/one-percent-emits-twice-carbon-half-world>), it would mean living in smaller homes and eating vastly less meat.

"We still get Duolingo, we still get laptops and internet, you can still... watch TV," study coauthor Julia Steinberger, a sustainability researcher at the University of Leeds and University of Lausanne, told *Earther*.

## Cleaning Up

Such changes are possible, but Steinberger says they would take a major cultural shift away from rampant consumerism in developed nations.

"There may be lower working times because we’re not working more hours to create more stuff for ever-expanding markets or to consume more," Steinberger told *Earther*. "There may be more time for families, for leisure, for the things that, for many people, are what really matter."

**READ MORE:** [We Can Use Less Energy and Still Have Good Lives](<https://earther.gizmodo.com/we-can-use-less-energy-and-still-have-good-lives-1845230817>) \[*Gizmodo*\]

**More on carbon emissions:** *[The Richest One Percent Emits Twice as Much Carbon as Half the World](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/one-percent-emits-twice-carbon-half-world>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)