IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cpp/issued/v39y2013is2p125-142.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are There Realistic Possibilities for a Higher "Batting" Average? On Improving Residential Energy Efficiency in Canada

Author

Listed:
  • David L. Ryan
  • Junaid Bin Jahangir

Abstract

The main use of energy in the residential sector in Canada is for space heating. Reductions in residential energy use, therefore, are likely to be achieved primarily through energy-saving retrofits, such as improved insulation. Reasons advanced to explain the foot-dragging of the residential sector in this regard are examined here, along with various policy options. Canadian survey data from 2003 are used to examine and compare the most energy-inefficient households who saw no need for retrofits with other households who provided a similar response, with a view to assessing whether there are factors that can be exploited to increase the uptake of such retrofits. The results suggest there is likely to be no quick fix. In the absence of large retrofit subsidies, with their accompanying free-rider problem, or a multi-pronged strategy that includes a whole array of policy instruments, including one that changes the relative importance of energy costs in household budgets, the outlook for sizeable improvements in residential energy efficiency in Canada via residential retrofits does not appear to be overly promising.

Suggested Citation

  • David L. Ryan & Junaid Bin Jahangir, 2013. "Are There Realistic Possibilities for a Higher "Batting" Average? On Improving Residential Energy Efficiency in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 39(s2), pages 125-142, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:39:y:2013:i:s2:p:125-142
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://economics.ca/cgi/jab?journal=cpp&view=v39s2/CPPv39s2p125.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: No access restriction except for the four most recent issues.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David A. Weisbach, 2011. "Carbon Taxation in the EU: Expanding EU Carbon Price," Working Papers 1115, Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation.
    2. Sorrell, Steve & Dimitropoulos, John, 2008. "The rebound effect: Microeconomic definitions, limitations and extensions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 636-649, April.
    3. Hunt Allcott & Michael Greenstone, 2012. "Is There an Energy Efficiency Gap?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 3-28, Winter.
    4. Amstalden, Roger W. & Kost, Michael & Nathani, Carsten & Imboden, Dieter M., 2007. "Economic potential of energy-efficient retrofitting in the Swiss residential building sector: The effects of policy instruments and energy price expectations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 1819-1829, March.
    5. Steg, Linda, 2008. "Promoting household energy conservation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 4449-4453, December.
    6. Young, Denise, 2008. "Who pays for the `beer fridge' Evidence from Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 553-560, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiao Han & Chu Wei, 2021. "Household energy consumption: state of the art, research gaps, and future prospects," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 12479-12504, August.
    2. Karen Turner, 2013. ""Rebound" Effects from Increased Energy Efficiency: A Time to Pause and Reflect," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    3. Häckel, Björn & Pfosser, Stefan & Tränkler, Timm, 2017. "Explaining the energy efficiency gap - Expected Utility Theory versus Cumulative Prospect Theory," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 414-426.
    4. Du, Kerui & Liu, Xueyue & Zhao, Cheng, 2023. "Environmental regulation mitigates energy rebound effect," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    5. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/5k7940uimfdf9c898a1ol5436 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Anna Alberini, Will Gans, and Charles Towe, 2016. "Free Riding, Upsizing, and Energy Efficiency Incentives in Maryland Homes," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    7. Bakaloglou, Salomé & Charlier, Dorothée, 2021. "The role of individual preferences in explaining the energy performance gap," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    8. Evens Salies, 2010. "Penalizing Consumers for Saving Electricity," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(2), pages 1144-1153.
    9. Laurie Buys & Desley Vine & Gerard Ledwich & John Bell & Kerrie Mengersen & Peter Morris & Jim Lewis, 2015. "A Framework for Understanding and Generating Integrated Solutions for Residential Peak Energy Demand," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-20, March.
    10. Kenichi Mizobuchi & Kenji Takeuchi, 2016. "The Rebound Effect in Residential Electricity Use: Evidence from a Propensity Score Matching Estimator," Discussion Papers 1639, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    11. Trotta, Gianluca, 2018. "Factors affecting energy-saving behaviours and energy efficiency investments in British households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 529-539.
    12. Bettina Chlond & Claire Gavard & Lisa Jeuck, 2023. "How to Support Residential Energy Conservation Cost-Effectively? An analysis of Public Financial Schemes in France," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(1), pages 29-63, May.
    13. Kenichi Mizobuchi & Kenji Takeuchi, 2019. "Rebound effect across seasons: evidence from the replacement of air conditioners in Japan," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 21(1), pages 123-140, January.
    14. Kenichi Mizobuchi & Kenji Takeuchi, 2012. "Using Economic Incentives to Reduce Electricity Consumption: A field Experiment in Matsuyama, Japan," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 2(4), pages 318-332.
    15. Blum, Bianca & Hübner, Julian & Müller, Sarah & Neumärker, Karl Justus Bernhard, 2018. "Challenges for sustainable environmental policy: Influencing factors of the rebound effect in energy efficiency improvements," The Constitutional Economics Network Working Papers 02-2018, University of Freiburg, Department of Economic Policy and Constitutional Economic Theory.
    16. Copiello, Sergio, 2017. "Building energy efficiency: A research branch made of paradoxes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1064-1076.
    17. Salomé Bakaloglou & Dorothée Charlier, 2018. "The role of individual preferences to explain the energy performance gap," Working Papers 2018.15, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    18. Samdruk Dharshing & Stefanie Lena Hille, 2017. "The Energy Paradox Revisited: Analyzing the Role of Individual Differences and Framing Effects in Information Perception," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 485-508, December.
    19. Julia Blasch & Claudio Daminato, 2018. "Behavioral anomalies and energy-related individual choices: the role of status-quo bias," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 18/300, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    20. Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Antoine Missemer, 2023. "The History of Energy Efficiency in Economics: Breakpoints and Regularities," Post-Print halshs-02301636, HAL.
    21. Chlond, Bettina & Gavard, Claire & Jeuck, Lisa, 2021. "Supporting residential energy conservation under constrained public budget: Cost-effectiveness and redistribution analysis of public financial schemes in France," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-056, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:39:y:2013:i:s2:p:125-142. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Iver Chong (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.utpjournals.press/loi/cpp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.