The clocks have gone back once again, ending Daylight Saving Time (DST), or British Summer Time, for 2024 – an annual practice long criticised by politicians, doctors and commuters.
Scientists are also divided over whether the time change could have the power to counter climate change. A study published in Environmental Research Letters last year found that DST decreases the energy needed to cool office buildings in the summer by nearly 6%. When the clocks go forward in spring, workers arrive at the office an hour earlier "in the cool of the morning", said Anthropocene Magazine. They leave earlier, too, "which is typically when demand for cooling is greatest".
But several studies published in the US and Europe have concluded that DST has "very little effect on energy conservation", said Euronews. A study by university researchers in Prague used data from 2010 to 2017 to estimate that DST in Slovakia had led to energy savings of just 0.8% of annual electricity consumption. Another study by the US Department of Transportation back in 1975 had similar findings.
Experts have also called the dates the clocks change into question. Natural time zones as close as possible to solar time would likely "align daily light and temperature curves better with our schedules", said Euronews.
"This could lead to energy savings on early morning industrial and other lighting, early morning heating during the colder months as people leave for work an hour later, and less air conditioning needed in the car on the commute after work and in the evening at home," it added. | 
