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To go beyond the assumptions of energy efficiency: a sociological understanding of rebound effects
Panel: Presentations
Author:
Dr. Sophie Némoz, Centre for Studies on Sustainable Development - Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Abstract
Sometimes, measures taken to protect the environment have unexpected effects on society. The European target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 has generated a substantial body of energy efficiency policies, but real-world observations indicate that energy savings realised in practice fall short of energy savings estimates based on physical principles incorporated in engineering models. A partial explanation of this trend consists in what is called “rebound effect” or “take-back”. Given its potential importance to sustainable consumption and production, some energy economists serve this unintended phenomenon as an argument against the set of assumptions revolving around the energy efficiency.
If the rebound effect is subsequently mentioned as something requiring serious attention, social sciences rarely explore the counterproductive effect of technical improvements in energy efficiency beyond the evocation of the mechanism as an explanation. This paper is one of the first contributions towards the challenge of a more inter-disciplinary understanding. Concretely, I am learning the interest in a sociological approach within the framework of a new research project with economists and engineers. The aim of our scientific collaboration is to study the rebound effects linked to the increased efficiency of energy use by Belgian households, in order to analyse the policy instruments to attenuate, neutralize or possibly prevent such patterns of consumption. The fact that more than 90% of human activity of modern societies is taking place in the household sector makes it interesting to identify the driving forces of an increase in the energetic throughput in this sector.
This energy and environmentally-related challenge demand new thinking in every domain of research from basic to applied. However, before exploring sociological ways of conceptualising and investigating the rebound effects in the energy-related practices of households, it seems fundamental to briefly review existing knowledge in energy economics about these tensions between the pursuit of wellbeing and the need to remain within ecological limits. The paper concludes with discussion on key policy issues.
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