Expert Workshop in the context of the project “rebound effects”

It is crucial to reduce energy and raw material consumption in order to ensure a sustainable development.

In this context, the containment of “rebound effects” constitutes a challenge for the environmental policy: energy and resource-efficient products and services lead to price reductions that incentivise a greater demand. Thus, savings are partly compensated again. On 25 September 2013, adelphi organised an expert workshop on this topic on behalf of the Federal Environmental Agency at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
Together with the Fraunhofer ISI and Ernst Basler+Partner, adelphi is currently developing guidelines to identify environmental needs for action with regard to rebound effects and strategies to reduce them. These guidelines are developed in the context of the project “rebound effects”. The content of the guidelines were presented at the expert workshop, commented on by external speakers from academia and environmental practice and discussed with further experts from politics and administration.
In Germany, the energy concept and the resource efficiency programme of the Federal Government have contributed significantly to a transition of the current economic conditions towards a “Green Economy”. However, due to income growth or the growing importance of energy-intensive new technologies, but also due to rebound effects, the anticipated reduction of absolute energy and resource consumption has not yet materialised. In this context, topics such as the extent and relevance of rebound effects in various fields of action and during the use of different environmental policy instruments were discussed at the expert workshop. Furthermore, the role of psychological rebound effects was evaluated. Within the project, solution strategies to mitigate rebound effects will be developed until December 2013 and illustrated with the help of case studies in the guidelines.