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The energy rebound effect is a potential threat to energy-saving targets based on energy efficiency improvements. This paper employs a stochastic energy demand frontier model to analyze the energy demand and rebound effect in China's urban residential sector. Using a panel data set of 30 Chinese provincial-level regions over the period 2001-2014, for the first time, we investigate the degrees and determinants of China's urban residential energy demand and energy rebound effect. The results show that residents' income level, energy price, temperature deviation, population scale, household size, and district heating system are significant influencing factors of residential energy consumption. Regarding the energy rebound effect, we find that energy price is negatively correlated with the rebound effect, and an inverted U-shaped relationship between residents' income level and rebound-effect size exists. The magnitude of the rebound effect varies across regions, with an average of 65.4%. The main policy implication generated by this study is that it should be in urgent need of energy pricing reform to mitigate the rebound effect in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's transport industry has made rapid progress, which has led to a great amount of carbon emissions. However, it is still unclear how carbon emissions from the transport sector are punctuated by shifts in underlying factors. This paper aims to examine the process of China's carbon emissions from the transport sector as well as its major driving forces at the provincial level during the period of 2000 to 2015. We first estimate the carbon emissions from the transport sector at the provincial level based on the fuel and electricity consumption using a top-down method. We find that the carbon emission per capita is steadily increasing across the country, especially in the provinces of Chongqing and Inner Mongolia. However, the carbon emission intensity is decreasing in most provinces, except in Yunnan, Qinghai, Chongqing, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Henan and Anhui. We then quantify the effect of socioeconomic factors and their regional variations on carbon emissions using a panel model. The results show that the development of secondary industry is the most significant variable for carbon intensity at both the national and regional levels, while the effects of the other variables vary across regions. Among these factors, population density is the main factor of the increasing carbon emissions per capita from the transport sector for both the whole country and the western region, whereas the consumption level per capita of residents and the development of tertiary industry are the primary drivers of per capita carbon emissions for the eastern and central regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on methods of price decomposition and spatial econometrics, this paper improves the model for calculating the direct energy rebound effect employing the panel data of China's urban residents' electricity consumption for an empirical analysis. Results show that the global spatial correlation of urban residents' electricity consumption has a significant positive value. The direct rebound effect and its spillover effects are 37% and 13%, respectively. Due to the spatial spillover effects, the realization of energy-saving targets in the local region depends on the implementation effect of energy efficiency policies in the surrounding areas. However, the spatial spillover effect is low, and the direct rebound effect induced by the local region is still the dominant factor affecting the implementation of energy efficiency. The direct rebound effect for urban residents' electricity consumption eliminating the spatial spillover effect does not show a significant downward trend. The main reason is that the rapid urbanization process at the current stage has caused a rigid residents' electricity demand and large-scale marginal consumer groups, which offsets the inhibition effect of income growth on the direct rebound effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We estimate the energy efficiency and direct rebound effect of residential electricity consumption by using the stochastic energy demand frontier model. • The average value of efficiency is 0.491, and the average rebound effect is 48%. • We find that electricity price and household size have a negative impact on the rebound effect, while the impact of income is inverted U-shaped. • The rebound effect varies across before and after the implementation of the increasing block pricing policy, considering rural and urban residents and different regions. The rebound effect is a potential threat to energy efficiency related policies to save energy. Based on data from China family panel studies over the period 2010–2018, this paper measures the energy efficiency and direct rebound effect of residential electricity consumption by using the stochastic energy demand frontier model. The result shows that the average value of efficiency is 0.491, and the average rebound effect is 48%. It means that there is still room for improvement in China's household electricity consumption efficiency. But the expected electricity- saving after improving efficiency can only achieve 52%. Besides, we find that electricity price and household size have a negative impact on the rebound effect, while the impact of income is inverted U-shaped. Finally, the rebound effect varies between before and after the implementation of the increasing block pricing policy, considering rural and urban residents and different regions. These findings provide some policy implications for the residential electricity pricing system under the background of energy conservation and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]