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The Rebound Effect

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Key Concepts in Energy

Abstract

The view that energy-efficiency improvements will actually serve to increase rather than reduce energy consumption was first proposed by the British economist, William Stanley Jevons in 1865. The effect he singled out was dubbed the “rebound effect” and its foundations became known as the “Jevons paradox.” This chapter places the debate back in its historical context by drawing attention to the issue that triggered major theoretical developments: whether or not Victorian Britain faced a threat of coal depletion alongside all the consequences such as the ensuing slowdown in economic activity and decline in imperial might. We detail how many of the forecasts associated with the impending coal scarcity thesis were not borne out by reality. Furthermore, we also explain what went wrong with Jevons’s view before the final pages discuss the role of energy efficiency in the contemporary world.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Nuno Luis Madureira

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  1. Nuno Luis Madureira
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Correspondence to Nuno Luis Madureira .

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Madureira, N.L. (2014). The Rebound Effect. In: Key Concepts in Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04978-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04978-6_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-04977-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-04978-6

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