The DOI matches its Crossref record; 7 of the 7 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Energy efficiency and economy-wide rebound effects: A review of the evidence and its implications
Open accessAbstract
The majority of global energy scenarios anticipate a structural break in the relationship between energy consumption and gross domestic product (GDP), with several scenarios projecting absolute decoupling, where energy use falls while GDP continues to grow. However, there are few precedents for absolute decoupling, and current global trends are in the opposite direction. This paper explores one possible explanation for the historical close relationship between energy consumption and GDP, namely that the economy-wide rebound effects from improved energy efficiency are larger than is commonly assumed. We review the evidence on the size of economy-wide rebound effects and explore whether and how such effects are taken into account within the models used to produce global energy scenarios. We find the evidence base to be growing in size and quality, but remarkably diverse in terms of the methodologies employed, assumptions used, and rebound mechanisms included. Despite this diversity, the results are broadly consistent and suggest that economy-wide rebound effects may erode more than half of the expected energy savings from improved energy efficiency. We also find that many of the mechanisms driving rebound effects are overlooked by integrated assessment and global energy models. We therefore conclude that global energy scenarios may underestimate the future rate of growth of global energy demand.
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Cites
International Energy Agency (2012) · World Energy Outlook · doi:10.1787/weo-2012-en · Cited by 1,219
Grubler, A., Wilson, C., Bento, N., Boza-Kiss, B., Krey, V., McCollum, D. L., Rao, N. D., Riahi, K., Rogelj, J., De Stercke, S., et al. (2018) · Nature Energy · doi:10.1038/s41560-018-0172-6 · Cited by 1,178
Fossil-fueled development (SSP5): An energy and resource intensive scenario for the 21st century
Kriegler, E., Bauer, N., Popp, A., Humpenöder, F., Leimbach, M., Strefler, J., Baumstark, L., Bodirsky, B. L., Hilaire, J., Klein, D., et al. (2017) · Global Environmental Change · doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.05.015 · Cited by 735
The Rebound Effect and Energy Efficiency Policy
Gillingham, K., Rapson, D., & Wagner, G. (2016) · Review of Environmental Economics and Policy · doi:10.1093/reep/rev017 · Cited by 672
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How large is the economy-wide rebound effect?
Stern, D. I. (2020) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111870 · Cited by 73
Climate–society feedbacks and the avoidance of dangerous climate change
Jarvis, A. J., Leedal, D. T., & Hewitt, C. N. (2012) · Nature Climate Change · doi:10.1038/nclimate1586 · Cited by 57
Cited by
The Influence of the Global Energy Crisis on Energy Efficiency: A Comprehensive Analysis
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Post-growth: the science of wellbeing within planetary boundaries
Kallis, G., Hickel, J., O’Neill, D. W., Jackson, T., Victor, P. A., Raworth, K., Schor, J. B., Steinberger, J. K., & Ürge-Vorsatz, D. (2025) · The Lancet Planetary Health · doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(24)00310-3 · Cited by 261
Peak oil and the low-carbon energy transition: A net-energy perspective
Delannoy, L., Longaretti, P.-Y., Murphy, D. J., & Prados, E. (2021) · Applied Energy · doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117843 · Cited by 116
Digitalization and the Anthropocene
Creutzig, F., Acemoglu, D., Bai, X., Edwards, P. N., Hintz, M. J., Kaack, L. H., Kilkis, S., Kunkel, S., Luers, A., Milojevic-Dupont, N., et al. (2022) · Annual Review of Environment and Resources · doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-120920-100056 · Cited by 112
Artificial intelligence and climate change: ethical issues
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Metadata
- Authors
- Brockway, P. E., Sorrell, S., Semieniuk, G., Heun, M. K., & Court, V.
- Venue
- Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-05
- Volume
- 141
- Pages
- 110781
- ISSN
- 1364-0321 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3134526661
- Cited by
- 383
- References
- 7
- FWCI
- 10.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
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- Brockway, P. E., Sorrell, S., Semieniuk, G., Heun, M. K., & Court, V. (2021). Energy efficiency and economy-wide rebound effects: A review of the evidence and its implications. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110781
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
