Abstract
A growing area of research into rebound effects from increased energy efficiency involves application of demand-driven input-output models to consider indirect energy consumption effects associated with re-spending decisions by households with reduced energy spending requirements. However, there is often a lack of clarity in applied studies as to how indirect effects involving energy use and/or carbon emissions in supply chains of both energy and non-energy goods and services have been calculated. We propose that more transparency for policymakers may be introduced by replacing consideration of what are often referred to as ‘indirect rebound’ effects with a simple Carbon Saving Multiplier metric. We illustrate using results from a demand-driven input-output model that tracks supply chain activity at national and/or global level. We argue that this captures and conveys the same information on quantity adjustments in energy used in supply chain activity but does so in a manner that is more positive, transparent, understandable and useful for a policy audience. This is achieved by focusing (here via carbon emissions) on the net benefits of changes in different types of energy use at both household and supply chain levels when energy efficiency improves in households.
Highlights
An interesting area of rebound research has developed in considering the impacts on energy use in supply chains from the re-spending decisions that households make when they realise savings from reduced expenditure on energy as their efficiency increases. Borenstein (2015) argues that there is potential for net negative rebound effects to occur even at the microeconomic level where a substitution effect involves consumers re-allocating spending from more to less energy-intensive goods or services
In this paper we focus on a ‘Carbon Saving Multiplier’ (CSM), which is given by the ratio of total carbon savings across the economy to those achieved directly by the more efficient user
Given the importance of the increasingly international nature of supply chain activity for climate policy concerns, we focus our attention on the inter-regional input-output (IRIO) model (Miller and Blair, 2009; Turner et al, 2007; Wiedmann, 2009) and apply it using global inter-country input-output data
Summary
An interesting area of rebound research has developed in considering the impacts on energy use in supply chains from the re-spending decisions that households make when they realise savings from reduced expenditure on energy as their efficiency increases. Borenstein (2015) argues that there is potential for net negative rebound effects to occur even at the microeconomic level where a substitution effect involves consumers re-allocating spending from more to less energy-intensive goods or services. The off-diagonal sub-matrices give us impacts of spending by final consumers on domestic or imported goods where emissions impacts occur in other regions (i.e. where the final consumption activity and emissions impact are in different countries) In this way, the system in (4) provides information on changes in physical supply chain emissions (or energy use if that is the focus of the specification of the E matrix) that could be used to calculate indirect or respending rebound effects – using one of the contested methods argued by Guerra and Sancho (2010) and Turner (2013) – at different spatial scales. This is information that is not captured by, and complements and supplements direct rebound estimates
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
