Promoting energy efficiency at household level: a literature review
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REVIEW ARTICLE
Promoting energy efficiency at household level: a literature review María del Mar Solà & Amaia de Ayala & Ibon Galarraga & Marta Escapa
Received: 4 February 2020 / Accepted: 18 November 2020 # The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The household sector is one of the most energy-intensive sectors in Europe, and thus a focal point for reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy consumption. Energy efficiency is considered a key measure to reduce household energy consumption, but several factors could lead to an underinvestment in energy efficiency. This is the so-called energy efficiency gap or paradox. The factors in question are grouped under market failures (including informational failures), behavioural failures and other factors. Various policies can be used to address these failures and promote the adoption of energy-efficient technologies, including energy standards and codes, economic incentives and information instruments. This paper reviews the empirical evidence to date on energy efficiency policies and discusses their effectiveness. On the one hand, command and control instruments seem to be effective policies, but they have to overcome several M. d. M. Solà (*) : A. de Ayala : I. Galarraga Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Scientific Campus, Building 1, 1st Floor, 48940 Leioa, Spain e-mail: [email protected] A. de Ayala Department of Applied Economics I, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Spain I. Galarraga Economics for Energy, Doutor Cadaval 2, 3E, 36202 Vigo, Spain M. Escapa Department of Economics Analysis, Faculty of Economics and Business, 48015 Bilbao, Spain
barriers. In the case of price instruments, subsidies and taxes do not seem to be effective while rebates present mixed results as they sometimes are effective and in other cases, they could present significant shortcomings. Finally, the effectiveness of informational policies is not always ensured as they depend on the country, sector and product category. Information feedback tools also seem to be effective as they work as a constant reminder of energy-efficient behaviour. Some limitations of energy efficiency policies are also identified, such as the difficulties of implementing codes and standards given that a minimum level need to be achieved, differences in the effectiveness of rebate programmes and nonconclusive results in regard to the effectiveness of monetary energy efficiency labels. Keywords Energy Efficiency gap . Energy Efficiency Policies . Effectiveness of policies
Introduction One of the overall objectives set by the Paris Agreement is to limit global temperature increase to less than 2 °C, with the ambitious goal of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 °C (Roman De Lara and Galarraga 2016). For that to happen, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) need to be reduced, and one of the primary drivers for this is the production and consumption of energy in diffe
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