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AbstractOn‐bill financing (OBF) schemes have been welcomed as innovative mechanisms for encouraging the adoption of low‐carbon energy technologies. Yet while the potential effects of these schemes have received growing attention, less is known about their actual performance. Departing from New Institutional Economics and insights from Behavioral Economics, this theory‐driven assessment examines the How$mart® program in Kansas (United States) and the Green Deal in the United Kingdom. The study identifies the mechanisms designed to trigger behavioral change and technology adoption. We focus on market agents, and related market failures and behavioral anomalies that often prevent energy efficiency improvements. The paper adds to our theoretical and empirical understanding of public and utility‐driven OBF programs applied to the residential sector. Our findings suggest that simple, carefully designed on‐bill programs, where the financing of efficient technologies takes the form of a service rather than a loan, are more effective for the diffusion of low‐carbon energy technology and the reduction of transaction costs. At the same time, on bill‐financing schemes challenge the core business of utilities, and given the complexities and dynamics of energy efficiency markets and energy use, other policy interventions are needed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how behavioural biases affect consumers' response to energy-use information provided through smart meters (SM). We take insights from behavioural economics and carry out two real-life experiments with SMs and electricity users. The experiments were conducted in Copenhagen (Denmark) to identify and assess the potential of two economic behavioural biases, salience and loss aversion. The results of the first experiment (i.e. installation of SM without further intervention) generally aligned with electricity use reductions found in previous research, and indicate that it may be reasonable to expect a reduction in electricity use in the medium-term (weeks/months) of ~5-7% approximately. Results of the second experiment (i.e. introduction of SM with and without intervention) show that subjecting participants to loss aversion and salience seems to affect their behaviour toward electricity use, as the intervention group reduced their consumption roughly twice as much as the reference group. With due limitations, the results suggest that the delivery of information to energy users needs to take into account not only its pure provision, but how it is designed, framed and presented. At all events, the results and reviewed studies strongly suggest that increased energy efficiency and energy conservation need to be addressed with a mix of policies – not only information schemes or the provision of feedback alone.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an ex-post evaluation of the effectiveness of the South Korean Green New Deal (GND) as an instrument to deliver both an economic recovery and improved environmental performance. We use the energy sector as the main scope for our analysis when measured against climate-related indicators (e.g. CO2 emissions, energy intensity, share of renewable energy in supply mix) adopted by the South Korean government as part of a broader commitment to green growth. The research involves complimentary methods to assess the economic and environmental effectiveness of the GND at the macro-level; including the so-called 'Three T test', a time series variability analysis and an econometric assessment. From a pure economic perspective, results suggest that the GND has been relatively successful as traditional fiscal stimulus. However, the GND seems ineffective as an instrument of environmental policy; at least in the short-term. In fact, and from an historical point of view, the econometric assessment confirms that the level of CO2 emissions has been largely determined by (the rate of) economic growth. On the short-term, the level of environmental ineffectiveness of the GND can be explained by numerous factors; including the lack of complementary pricing reforms, insufficient renewable energy uptake, and improvements in energy intensity incapable of offsetting the negative effects of economic growth. The research findings need to be tempered by limitations associated with the analysis, notably related to causality. At all events, it is worth considering the role that the GND may have played in providing impetus for long-term action to enhance green growth policies in the energy sector, such as the implementation of the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard in 2012 or the Emission Trading Scheme in 2015.

In this paper, we analyze the experiences gained from tradable green certificate (TGC) schemes and extract some policy lessons that can lead to a successful design of a market-based approach for energy efficiency improvement, alias tradable white certificate schemes. We use tradable green certificate schemes existing in the Netherlands and Sweden as case studies. Departing from an assessment of both TGC schemes, we identify several institutional and market aspects that have affected their performance. We conduct the analysis by addressing key evaluation criteria (i.e., cost and energy effectiveness, administrative burden, technological innovation, political feasibility, and transaction costs). It is not our intention to demonstrate to the reader a normative aspect of designing tradable white certificate schemes. Rather, we identify some key policy lessons which can be summarized as: a binding long-term target must be clearly expressed in terms of policy time frame and certainty, a proper liquid market must be ensured for tradability of certificates, the scheme should be technology neutral, transaction costs should be kept low, and the energy efficiency target should not only address 'low hanging fruits' but also promote innovation.

Emission trading schemes (ETS) have emerged as a popular climate policy measure and are increasingly advocated as policy instruments to support the transition to a green economy. Using complementary analytical methods, this research investigated the institutional developments and complexities of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS). It focuses on (1) institutional experience and administrative capacity, and (2) political acceptance during formation, design, implementation, and review. The research answer questions concerning critical conditions that have affected the institutional feasibility of the NZ ETS and the trade-offs in achieving and maintaining institutional feasibility. The experience in New Zealand has demonstrated that bipartisan political support and obliged participant acceptance for an ETS can be achieved and the administrative burden can be kept low through an inclusive consultation process and particular aspects of design to provide more certainty about costs. However, this institutional feasibility has also been a trade-off with other important aspects such as environmental effectiveness, predictability, and legitimacy, posing risks to maintaining political acceptance of the policy design and achieving the longer term objectives of transitioning to a green economy.

The paper aims to identify and analyse potential legal avenues for phasing out fossil fuels in the European Union using EU State aid rules. Our analysis of the EU's legal framework reveals that the EU State aid rules would allow the European Commission to effectively target and monitor fossil fuel subsidies. In particular, the requirements for notification, examination, transparency, reporting, and recovery of unlawfully granted aid may be highly useful tools. The legal framework also provides avenues for the EU Commission to start a 'Fossil Fuel Inquiry' to identify and quantify all support for fossil fuels within the EU Member States. Furthermore, the EU State aid rules can also provide civil society with the possibilities to actively lobby for State aid control and offer the court systems as an additional avenue for enforcement. Based on a legal analysis of which fossil fuel subsides are subject to the EU state aid legal framework and we make a first estimate of the value of fossil fuel subsidies subject to this regime. With due limitations our best estimate suggests that approximately 50—60% of the 112 billion Euro of subsidies in the EU per year which have been identified by the ODI/CAN report can be addressed by EU State aid rules. The analysis of the EU's legal framework for State aid reveals that the EU State aid rules allow the European Commission to effectively target and monitor fossil fuel subsidies. We conclude that despite inherent limitations, the EU state aid toolbox offers various possibilities to the EU to actively advance its climate change policy and comply with its international commitments to reduce fossil fuel subsidies.

Since 2010, the Chilean government has backed a progressive increase of non-conventional renewable energies sources (NCRES) to put forward the country's energy independence from fossil fuels, and therefore from imports, and to reduce its CO2 emissions. The analysis of the final energy consumption changes via a structural decomposition analysis, based on the Input-Output Tables for Chile in the period 2008-2013, enables us to identify the key effects as well as the sectors and energy sources in this process. The results show that the scale and the intensity effects are the main drivers of the final energy consumption change. There is a significant increase of the final energy sources derived from natural gas (273%), electricity (23%) and oil (8%). The increase of the electricity consumption due to the scale, intensity and demand structure effects reveals a coupling with economic growth, lower energy efficiency and larger end-use exporter sectors (e.g., mining). Concretely, the use of coal for electricity generation increased in absolute (23,648 Tcal) and relative terms of total fossil fuels (34%). Despite the rapid deployment of NCRES, a short-term analysis suggests that more aggressive policy efforts are needed to effectively drive the transition towards a low-carbon energy system. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.