Energy Efficiency is for Real, Energy Rebound a Distraction

International Resources, Funding Society Responses

Date posted: 02/05/16

S. Afsah, K. Salcito and C. Wielga (the authors) report that Energy Efficiency is an over-rated policy tool when it comes to cutting energy use and CO2 emissions ... that is the basic message promoted by the U.S. think tank, the Breakthrough Institute (BTI), and amplified in major news outlets like the New Yorker and the New York Times. Their logic is that every action to conserve energy through efficient use leads to an opposite reaction to consume more energy, a rebound mechanism, which, according to the BTI, can negate as much as 60-100% of saved energy, and in some cases can backfire to increase net energy consumption. In this research note they refute this policy message and show that the BTI, as well as its champions in the media, have overplayed their hand, supporting their case with anecdotes and analysis that do not measure up against theory and data. The authors fact-checking revealed that empirical estimates of energy rebound cited by the BTI are over-estimated or wrong, and they contradict the technological reality of energy efficiency gains observed in many industrial sectors. The authors provide new statistical evidence to show that energy efficiency policies and programs can reliably cut energy use ... a finding that is consistent with the policy stance of leading experts and organizations like the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) and the World Bank. Additionally, the authors took their policy message one step further ... by using new insights from the emerging multi-disciplinary literature on energy efficiency gap, we recommend that the world needs more energy efficiency policies and programs to cut greenhouse gases ... not less as implied by the BTI and its cohorts in the media. I2M WP Eds suggest that whenever energy efficiency is mentioned, this is interpreted by many Independents and Republications as Liberal Speak, and or promptly respond by attempting to discredit the concept offhand... the BTI views fits well into Republican Speak.