Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
policies undertaken at EU level in order to deal with the relations between the energy
sector and the problem of climate change. The chapter is structured in
ve sections.
After this brief introduction, Sect. 2 reviews some key concepts and market failures.
Section 3 describes the policies to promote green energy and ef
ciency and Sect. 4
illustrates the dif
culties associated to the design of European energy policy. Finally,
Sect. 5 draws some conclusions.
2 Some Key Concepts and Market Failures
2.1 Energy Ef
ciency and Energy Conservation
Energy ef
ciency is using less energy to provide the same service or providing
more services with the same energy. For example, if a consumer replaces a
refrigerator or a washing machine with a more energy-ef
cient model, the new
equipment provides the same service, but uses less energy. In this way, promoting
energy ef
ciency programs are considered win-win situations as long as the con-
sumer saves money in her energy bill and environmental damages due to energy use
are reduced.
Energy conservation is different to energy ef
ciency as it means reducing or
going without a service to save energy. Driving less is an example of energy
conservation while driving the same amount with a lower mileage vehicle is an
example of energy efciency. Energy conservation can take place independently of
whether energy ef
ciency is increasing or not. On the other hand, an increase in
energy ef
ciency does not always imply an increase in energy conservation, as it
will depend on the rebound effect as it is explained below.
Energy ef
ciency is even considered as
one of the large resources
[ 19 ] and a
as long as it can extend energy supplies, increase energy security and
lower carbon emissions. According to a recent study [ 14 ], in 2011 investments in
the energy ef
hidden fuel
ciency market globally were at a similar scale to those in renewable
energy or fossil-fuel power generation.
There is a substantial body of literature dealing with the study of how to design
the energy policy to achieve an increase in both energy ef
ciency and energy
conservation. Several different instruments have been considered and proposed:
scal instruments, such as taxes and subsidies, technological innovation programs,
energy labels for durable goods, command and control instruments and educational
programs. A review of this literature can be found in Jaffe et al. [ 17 ], Gillingham
et al. [ 10 ] and Linares and Labanderia [ 20 ].
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