Light-Duty Vehicle Carbon Emission Standards and the Rebound Effect

Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the proposed Australian light vehicle fuel efficiency standards, and captures the economy-wide economic and environmental impacts of the policy. Its theoretical analysis of the behaviour of the household and the firm, together with the CGE simulations that use results from a detailed engineering fleet model, captures the economy-wide economic and environmental impacts of the policy, which are essential for policymakers in evaluating each policy option. The book investigates the effect of energy efficiency improvement on energy consumption, and answers the question of whether energy efficiency improvement could achieve the goal of reducing energy consumption. Furthermore, this research examines how much energy will be conserved by the proposed Australian light vehicle emissions standards in a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The importance of understanding the mechanism of the rebound effect on different scopes has implications for both economic theory and climate policy.