AUSTRALIA lags behind most rich nations in taking the easiest steps to make an emissions trading scheme as cheap as possible: becoming more energy efficient at home, work and on the road. Due largely to a love of petrol-guzzling cars and an energy-intensive manufacturing sector, Australia's energy efficiency improved at only a third of the rate of the OECD average between 1990 and 2004. According to a report released today by the Climate Institute, only Canada and the US, among developed countries, use more energy than Australia on the goods and services they produce.