Presentation entitled "Turning Lights into Flights: Rebound Effects from Sustainable Behaviour and Efficiency Improvements"
Abstract of the presentation:
Turning Lights into Flights:
rebound effects from sustainable behaviour and efficiency improvements
Improved energy efficiency and behavioural change are expected to play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the energy and GHG savings from such measures may be less than simple calculations suggest, owing to a variety of mechanisms that go under the heading of rebound effects. For example, improved insulation lowers heating costs and encourages households to heat their homes for longer and/or to higher temperatures. Alternatively, the cost savings from improved insulation may be spent on other goods and services that also require energy to provide (e.g. manufacturing clothing in China and shipping it to the UK). Such effects will offset the anticipated energy and GHG savings, but are difficult to quantify and measure and widely ignored. This seminar will report the results of studies that estimate rebound effects from a number of energy efficiency improvements and sufficiency measures for UK households. The results suggest that rebound effects are relatively moderate for measures to improve ‘heating’ and ‘lighting’ efficiency, but significantly larger for measures to improve ‘transport’ efficiency and ‘food waste’ sufficiency measures. Furthermore, the rebound effects for lower income households are generally larger than for higher income groups. Overall, results demonstrate the importance of taking account of rebound effects when estimating the impact of energy efficiency and sufficiency measures in policy-making.