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Non-technical Aspects of Household Energy Reductions

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Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

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Abstract

Domestic energy forms a significant part of total energy use in OECD countries, accounting for 21.4% in the USA in 2018 and a much greater share in low-income countries. Together with private travel, domestic energy reductions are one of the few ways that households can directly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Although domestic energy costs form a minor part of average household expenditure in OECD countries, the unit costs for domestic electricity and natural gas vary by a factor of four and five, respectively, and per capita use is strongly influenced by these costs. Other influences on domestic energy use are household income, household size, residence type (apartment/flat vs detached house) and regional climate. Numerous campaigns have been carried out in various countries to reduce household energy use. A large literature has analyzed both the results of these studies and the general psychology of pro-environmental behavior, yet the implications for policy often seem to conflict with what comparisons of national statistical data would suggest.

We argue that the rising frequencies of extreme weather events (especially heat waves, storms, and floods) together with sea level rises are likely to be key factors in getting both the public and policy makers to treat global climate change as a matter of urgency. Costs of domestic energy are likely to rise in the future, possibly because of carbon taxes. But such taxes, if adopted, will need to be supplemented by other policies that not only encourage the use of more efficient energy consuming appliances but also unambiguously support energy and emission reductions in all sectors.

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Abbreviations

ABS:

Australian Bureau of Statistics

AC:

air conditioning

EIA:

Energy Information Administration (US)

EJ:

exajoule (1018 joule)

EPR:

energy performance rating

EU:

European Union

GHG:

greenhouse gas

GJ:

gigajoule (109 joule)

GNI:

Gross National Income

Gt:

gigatonne (109 tonne)

IEA:

International Energy Agency

IPCC:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IT:

information technology

MWh:

megawatt-hour (106 watt-hour)

NG:

natural gas

OECD:

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

ONS:

Office for National Statistics (UK)

PCT:

personal carbon trading

PEB:

pro-environmental behavior

RCP:

Representative concentration pathway

SBJ:

Statistics Bureau Japan

SCC:

social cost of carbon

UHI:

Urban Heat Island

UN:

United Nations

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Design, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Patrick Moriarty

  2. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Damon Honnery

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  1. Patrick Moriarty
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  2. Damon Honnery
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Correspondence to Patrick Moriarty .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Circe Biotechnologie GmbH, Vienna, Austria

    Maximilian Lackner

  2. Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Baharak Sajjadi

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Mississippi, University, MS, USA

    Wei-Yin Chen

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Moriarty, P., Honnery, D. (2022). Non-technical Aspects of Household Energy Reductions. In: Lackner, M., Sajjadi, B., Chen, WY. (eds) Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72579-2_71

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