Direct rebound effect for urban household in China—an empirical study

Abstract

Household sector has become one important target sector on which the Chinese government implements its energy-saving and emission reduction policies. Improving energy efficiency is the primary method adopted by the Chinese government for energy conservation. However, its real energy-saving effects would be affected greatly owing to energy rebound effects. In this paper, we set up a Linear Approximation of the Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS) model to estimate the direct rebound effect for urban households in China, and real energy conservation effect of improving energy efficiency is also obtained. The assessment of the rebound has a lot of uncertainty, and therefore, exact figures are hard to determine. The results show that energy rebound for Chinese urban household is approximately 66%. In this regard, the Chinese government could not accomplish the energy conservation target through improving energy efficiency only. Policy supplements like energy pricing reform are also needed.