From Unidisciplinary to Multidisciplinary Rebound Research: Lessons Learned for Comprehensive Climate and Energy Policies

Frontiers in Energy Research

Santarius, Tilman¹  Walnum, Hans Jakob² 

[1]Institute for Ecological Economy Research, Technical University of Berlin, Germany

[2]Western Norway Research Institute, Norway

关键词: sustainable production;    sustainable consumption;    energy economics;    climate policy;    Rebound effect;    Green growth;    Post growth;    Degrowth;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fenrg.2018.00104

学科分类：能源（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

This article presents how the rebound phenomenon has evolved from only being considered from a neoclassical economic perspective to include several other disciplines such as psychology, sociology and industrial ecology. The intention is to show how different theoretical perspectives contribute to the scientific discourse about rebound effects. We summarize key findings from the various disciplinary strains of research and highlight new research questions and needs that arise. We discuss strengths and limitations of the expansion towards multi-disciplinary rebound research and suggest that a further expansion towards transdisciplinary research could be valuable. We identify the ‘micro-macro discrepancy’ and the ‘cause-effect relativity’ as two general challenges that have to be taken into account when rebound research becomes increasingly multi- and transdisciplinary. In the final section of the article, we present lessons learned from multi-disciplinary rebound research for policies and measures that aim to mitigate rebound effects. The main finding of this article is that if policy makers aim to make climate and energy policies as ‘rebound-proof’ as possible, findings not only from energy economics but from multi-disciplinary rebound research have to be taken into account.

【 授权许可】

CC BY