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Abstract: This paper seeks to measure industrial energy saving activities (ESAs) and identify their determinant factors via an empirical study of companies in Hyogo, Japan. The surveyed companies exhibit high participation ratios in the pre-listed ESAs, especially those related to managerial measures. The classified factors are partly confirmed by econometric analysis. Whereas external pressures do not appear to alter the level of involvement of a company in ESAs, internal factors show a significant and positive influence. These findings point to the need for higher levels of support for industry as a whole from policy makers and industrial associations, to enhance energy saving practices within industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper measures the company''s awareness and acceptability of market-based instruments (MBIs) for energy saving, and identifies their relationships with pre-classified determinants. The data were collected from 121 respondents in Taicang, China, with almost all of them being small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The surveyed companies indicate moderate awareness of MBIs at present. Market competition is confirmed to function as a driver for the companies to collect strategic information and thus enhance their policy awareness. The samples with higher education level of employees indicate higher awareness of MBIs. In contrast to the regulative polices, MBIs and voluntary approaches are more appreciated by the companies. The companies in the survey area prefer to make internal efforts in response to energy cost increases due to the implementation of carbon pricing policies and are reluctant to simply transfer the policy burden to their customers. Empirical evidences on the conditions for policy success from this study are meaningful for supporting further progress of industrial energy saving policies in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Households may imperfectly implement energy saving measures. This study identifies two factors resulting in imperfect use of energy-saving technology by households. Households often continue to use old technologies alongside new ones, and the energy-saving technologies have shorter actual lifetimes than their designed lifetimes. These two factors are considered when computing marginal energy conservation cost and marginal CO 2 abatement cost using data collected from a survey of rural households in three provinces in China. The results show that there are cost reduction for most space heating technologies, and their marginal abatement cost under full implementation ranges from −60 to 15 USD/t-CO 2 , while the marginal abatement cost of cooking technologies ranges from 12 to 85 USD/t-CO 2 . The marginal abatement costs of the majority of technologies increased after accounting for the two implementation factors. The marginal abatement cost in the imperfect implementation scenario is higher, with a range of −1 to 15 USD/t-CO 2 for space heating, and 18 to 165 USD/t-CO 2 for cooking. Assuming implementation factors are constant until 2035, annually achievable CO 2 abatement by 2035 is estimated to be 57, 11, and 10 Mt-CO 2 /y in Hebei, Guizhou, and Guangxi Provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]