The publisher about the book: This book calls for rethinking current climate, energy and sustainability policy-making by presenting new insights into the rebound phenomenon; i.e., the driving forces, mechanisms and extent of rebound effects and potential means of mitigating them. It pursues an innovative and novel approach to the political and scientific rebound discourse and hence, supplements the current state-of-knowledge discussed in the field of energy economics and recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Building on central rebound publications from the past four decades, this book is divided into three main sections: Part I highlights new aspects of rebound economics by presenting insights into issues that have so far not been satisfactorily researched, such as rebounds in countries of the Global South, rebounds on the producer-side, and rebounds from sufficiency behaviour (as opposed to rebounds from technical efficiency improvements). In turn, Part II goes beyond conventional economic rebound research, exploring multidisciplinary perspectives on the phenomenon, in particular from the fields of psychology and sociology. Advancing such multidisciplinary perspectives delivers a more comprehensive understanding of rebound’s driving forces, mechanisms, and policy options. Part III puts rebounds into practice and presents several policy cases and sector-specific approaches, including the contexts of labour markets, urban planning, tourism, information and communication technologies, and transport. Lastly, the book embeds the issue into the larger debate on decoupling, green growth and degrowth, and identifies key lessons learned for sustainable development strategies and policies at large. By employing such varied and in-depth analyses, the book makes an essential contribution to the discussion of the overall question: Can resource-, energy-use and greenhouse gas emissions be substantially reduced without hindering economic growth?

Table of contents

1. Introduction: Rebound Research in a Warming World - Santarius, Tilman (et al.)
2. After 35 Years of Rebound Research in Economics: Where Do We Stand? - Madlener, Reinhard (et al.)
3. Indirect Effects from Resource Sufficiency Behaviour in Germany - Buhl, Johannes (et al.)
4. The Global South: New Estimates and Insights from Urban India - Chakravarty, Debalina (et al.)
5. Production-Side Effects and Feedback Loops Between the Micro and Macro Level - Santarius, Tilman
6. Exploring Rebound Effects from a Psychological Perspective - Peters, Anja (et al.)
7. Towards a Psychological Theory and Comprehensive Rebound Typology - Santarius, Tilman (et al.)
8. Behavioural Changes After Energy Efficiency Improvements in Residential Properties - Suffolk, Christine (et al.)
9. Energy Efficiency and Social Acceleration: Macro-level Rebounds from a Sociological Perspective - Santarius, Tilman
10. Labour Markets: Time and Income Effects from Reducing Working Hours in Germany - Buhl, Johannes (et al.)
11. Urban Planning: Residential Location and Compensatory Behaviour in Three Scandinavian Cities - Næss, Petter
12. Tourism: Applying Rebound Theories and Mechanisms to Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation - Aall, Carlo (et al.)
13. The Internet: Explaining ICT Service Demand in Light of Cloud Computing Technologies - Walnum, Hans Jakob (et al.)
14. Transportation: Challenges to Curbing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Road Freight Traffic - Walnum, Hans Jakob (et al.)
15. Between Green Growth and Degrowth: Decoupling, Rebound Effects and the Politics for Long-Term Sustainability - Nørgård, Jørgen (et al.)
16. Conclusions: Respecting Rebounds for Sustainability Reasons - Santarius, Tilman (et al.)