How organizational and global factors condition the effects of energy efficiency on CO₂ emission rebounds among the world's power plants

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and several nations suggest that energy efficiency is an effective strategy for reducing energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Skeptics contend that because efficiency lowers the price of energy and energy services, it may actually increase demand for them, causing total emissions to rise. While both sides of this debate have researched the magnitude of these so-called rebound effects among end-use consumers, researchers have paid less attention to the conditions under which direct rebounds cause CO₂ emissions to rise among industrial producers. In particular, researchers have yet to explore how organizational and global factors might condition the effects of efficiency on emissions among power plants, the world's most concentrated sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Here we use a unique dataset containing nearly every fossil-fuel power plant in the world to determine whether the impact of efficiency on emissions varies by plants' age, size, and location in global economic and normative systems. Findings reveal that each of these factors has a significant interaction with efficiency and thus shapes environmentally destructive rebound effects. - Highlights: •Skeptics charge that energy efficiency may actually cause CO₂ emissions to rise. •Few have examined whether such rebound effects occur among power plants. •Little also known about whether plants' organizational and global characteristics condition rebounds. •Conduct first analysis of rebound effects among the world's power plants. •Rebounds found to depend on plants' age, size, and location in international economic and normative systems.