Reducing energy consumption and efficiencies can go a long way to helping them get there. And even though they likely won't get there for a while there is very strong will to try, which means they will get a lot closer than naysayers assume. I wouldn't discount Germany's determination or will, several have to their peril.
India and China still use a lot, with India's consumption increasing, but China has leveled off and the US and EU's usage has dropped quite a bit over the past three decades. So yeah, still dying.
I don't get the hate and scorn heaped on renewables, that along with energy efficiencies (down with incandescents!) it is a great way to helping us reach the long sought goal of actual energy independence, helping unshackle our economy's dependence on the fickle oil market and great for the environment. It is a win-win-win but you still have folks that cling to coal, want to 'drill baby, drill' and roll coal to 'own' whoever they don't like.
People don't so much hate renewables, what they hate is the renewables being forced onto us as if they are at all a viable replacement for conventional sources of energy. Barack Obama was acting as if we could replace our conventional sources with them back in 2008 when he became President. It's 2022 and they are nowhere further in terms of being a viable replacement.
It is also questionable as to how independent they will actually make us, because they require a lot of various rare earth elements for their manufacture, and a lot of those right now come from sketchy parts of the world. For example China is where a lot of rare earth elements are currently sourced (they could be sourced elsewhere, but China is the cheapest I believe and the best at mining them) and China also leads in solar panel manufacturing. For battery technology, one of the critical elements is cobalt, and the major source of that in the world is the Congo, where a lot of child labor and oppressive conditions are used in the mining of it.
The incandescent light bulb ban represents part of the whole problem IMO with the green energy crusade. We get told the LEDs and CFLs are superior to the incandescent, so therefore they raise the energy standards to ban the incandescent (also lobbied for by the light bulb companies). Of course, this reminds me of a meme I've seen on the Internet: "Liberalism. Ideas so great, they're mandatory!"
The initial selling point was that LEDs would last and last and last in comparison to incandescents, even though they cost a lot more. The thing is, the reason the very cheap incandescents last the amount of time they do is engineered in as back in the 20th century, the major lighting companies came to an agreed-upon industry standard for how long the light bulbs would last. They could make incandescents that last far longer if they wanted to. The other thing is that while high-quality early incadescents did last forever (I have one about ten years-old now that I leave running for hours each day, and it's still going strong!), the newer ones don't seem to last much longer than the original incandescents. Which doesn't surprise me, as the manufacturers have likely gradually reduced their lifespan so people are forced to keep buying them.
And incandescent light bulbs are superior to LEDs and CFLs in terms of light quality, because incandescent light is natural and flows naturally in all directions. CFL light is harsher and LED light is very directional and artificial in comparison to incandescent. One LED light "bulb" consists of multiple individual LED lights arrayed in a circular pattern with the "bulb" covering diffusing the light up and downwards, so to simulate an incandescent. Some people can't tell the difference, others still can.
Now LEDs blow incandescents out of the water in terms of energy-efficiency and for not producing much in the way of heat, and for that, they can be a great option, but in the winter cold, incandescents can help with heating your home and also, they won't interfere with your television the way LEDs can. LEDs are electronics and can give off a signal that screws with your TV. This happened with one I had. The TV kept acting screwy, finally I took out the 3-way LED I had in the nearby lamp and replaced it with a 3-way incandescent and the problem went away.
IMO, the ban on incandescents should be done away with entirely and people allowed to make their own choice. If LEDs and CFLs are really so superior, then the incandescent will just naturally become like record albums, i.e. made by a few small niche manufacturers for people who still want them. But that isn't what would happen and the Left would scream if this was done, despite proclaiming up and down the supposed superiority of the mandated product.
Anyways, that is my rant on that
