scholarly journals Climate Change Helplessness and the (De)moralization of Individual Energy Behavior.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Salomon ◽  
Jesse Preston ◽  
Melanie B. Tannenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Conservation Behavior ◽  
Energy Behavior ◽  
Individual Actions ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Personal Energy

Although most people understand the threat of climate change, they do little to modify their own energy conservation behavior. One reason for this gap between belief and behavior may be that individual actions seem un-impactful and therefore are not morally relevant. This research investigates how climate change helplessness—belief that one’s actions cannot affect climate change—can undermine the moralization of climate change and personal energy conservation. In Study 1, climate change efficacy predicted both moralization of energy use and energy conservation intentions beyond individual belief in climate change. In Studies 2 and 3, participants read information about climate change that varied in efficacy message, that is, whether individual actions (e.g., using less water, turning down heat) make a difference in the environment. Participants who read that their behavior made no meaningful impact reported weaker moralization and intentions (Study 2), and reported more energy consumption one week later (Study 3). Moreover, effects on intentions and actions were mediated by changes in moralization. We discuss ways to improve climate change messages to foster environmental efficacy and moralization of personal energy use.

scholarly journals The Climate Change Dilemma: How Cooperation Beliefs Influence Energy Conservation Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5575
Author(s):  
Christiane Lübke
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Environmental Behavior ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Conservation Behavior ◽  
Individual Incentive ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Save Energy ◽  
High Level

Despite widespread belief in anthropogenic climate change and high levels of concern about its consequences, behavioral changes necessary to adequately address climate change appear difficult to achieve. This concern–behavior gap is often explained by the public goods character of climate change mitigation, which is associated with a high individual incentive to take a free ride when possible. This paper examines cooperation beliefs and their impact on individuals’ energy conservation behavior. Analyzing data from the European Social Survey, it appears that cooperation beliefs are rather low in Europe and that most people do not expect others to limit their energy use to help mitigate climate change. This low trust contrasts with individuals’ reported level of energy conservation behavior and the general high level of energy conservation in most European countries. This trust gap has important implications for pro-environmental behavior as high trust in others’ pro-environmental behavior fosters individuals’ attempts to save energy.

The Relationship between Energy Consumption and Climate Change in Shanghai

2012 ◽  
Vol 524-527 ◽  
pp. 2388-2393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Wang ◽  
Mahjoub Elnimeiri
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Average Temperature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Strong Positive Relationship ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Annual Average Temperature ◽  
Fossil Fuel Energy

The phenomenon of climate change is becoming a global problem. One of the most important reasons of climate change is the increase in CO2 levels due to emissions from fossil fuel energy use in daily human activities. This research will use the data of the annual average temperature and energy consumption in the past 41 years of Shanghai, the largest city in China, to establish the statistical relationship between climate change and energy consumption. It is found that there is a strong positive relationship between climate change and energy consumption in Shanghai. The phenomenon of climate change could be controlled by reducing excessive energy consumption in people’s daily life. Furthermore, this paper will also discuss the reason of such relationship, and provide suggesstions of saving energy and protecting our environment.

The Queen’s Residence Energy Challenge

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Adrangi
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Student Affairs ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Residence Halls ◽  
Residence Life ◽  
Solar Panels ◽  
Energy Expenditures ◽  
Energy Challenge ◽  
Sustainability Coordinator

The Queen’s Residence Energy Challenge (QREC) is an energy conservation initiative taking place in the residence halls at Queen’s University coordinated by the AMS Sustainability Office and the Sustainability Coordinator for Student Affairs . It is a two-part competition. Part one of the competition is an interresidence competition in which each residence hall will be competing to reduce their energy expenditures. Energy use will be compared to the corresponding time in the previous year, and the residence that reduces their energy use by the highest percentage will win the competition. This part of the project is being organized by members of the AMS Sustainability Office and the Sustainability Coordinator (Office of Student Affairs), and Residence Life staff and floor dons are helping execute it. The second part of the competition is an inter-university pledge drive, in which residents will be encouraged to sign a pledge stating that they will be participating in the QREC. Queen’s will be competing against the Universities of Waterloo and Guelph, and the school that has the highest percentage of residents participating will win a set of solar panels as a symbol of energy conservation and renewable energy. This part of the project is being coordinated by the Sierra Youth Coalition who has obtained funding from the Ontario Power Authority. The goals of the QREC are to reduce overall energy use in the residences, help students living in residence learn about their own energy consumption and ways to reduce it, and create a culture of sustainability at Queen’s. In this presentation I will go through the overall timeline of executing and planning the project, provide examples of ways to reduce energy consumption in residence, and provide results of both parts of the competition.

scholarly journals Analysis of Annual Energy Use Intensities (EUIs) by End-Use in Apartment Units According to Stratification Variables (2017 – 2018)

2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 04013
Author(s):  
Hye-Sun Jin ◽  
Han-Young Lim ◽  
You-Jeong Kim ◽  
Soo-Jin Lee ◽  
Sung-Im Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Space Heating ◽  
Building Sector ◽  
Domestic Hot Water ◽  
Space Cooling ◽  
End Use

To achieve the goal of reducing greenhouses gases, many countries have recognized the importance of energy conservation in the building sector, and such countries are considerably strengthening their building energy conservation policies by reinforcing design standards, encouraging remodeling, and requiring zero-energy construction. In order to effectively strengthen these policies, it is necessary to provide information concerning energy consumption in the building sector to ensure the technical and economic feasibility of policies in the marketplace, and to allow building users and policy makers to easily access and understand energy consumption characteristics. It is important to provide information that allows people to effectively understand the state of energy consumption by end-use (space heating, space cooling, domestic hot water, etc.) as part of the creation of a concrete plan for energy reduction that incorporates various service systems and is familiar to people. This is because providing such information plays an important role in establishing concrete policies and encouraging voluntary energy performance improvements by building occupants. South Korea operates the Korea Energy Statistics Information System (KESIS) and the information provided by this type of information system consists mainly of energy consumption by energy source (electricity, gas, etc.), and such systems remain inadequate for providing effective information on energy consumption and energy use intensity (EUI) by end-use (space heating, space cooling, domestic hot water, etc.) as part of the creation of a concrete plan for energy conservation. In order to accurately provide energy consumption information by end-use rather than limit the information to mainly consumption corresponding to energy sources, in this study, measurement systems were installed in 2014 ~ 2016 based on the overall sampling designs of previous studies for apartment units, classifications, measurement and data gathering methods for energy consumption by end-use. The annual statistical values for EUI by end-use were collected from the measurement data for 71 sample apartment units from May 2017 to April 2018. This data was calculated and analyzed using stratification variable levels for completion year, supplied area, and the heat source type.

scholarly journals Design and Application of Cellular Concrete on a Mexican Residential Building and Its Influence on Energy Savings in Hot Climates: Projections to 2050

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (22) ◽  
pp. 8225
Author(s):  
Ana C. Borbon-Almada ◽  
Jorge Lucero-Alvarez ◽  
Norma A. Rodriguez-Muñoz ◽  
Manuel Ramirez-Celaya ◽  
Samuel Castro-Brockman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Dynamic Simulations ◽  
Conventional Concrete ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cellular Concrete

The thermal performance of economical housing located in hot climates remains a pending subject, especially in emerging economies. A cellular concrete mixture was designed, considering its thermophysical properties, to apply the new material into building envelopes. The proposed materials have low density and thermal conductivity to be used as a nonstructural lightweight construction element. From the design stage, a series of wall systems based on cellular concrete was proposed. Whereas in the second phase, the materials were analyzed to obtain the potential energy savings using dynamic simulations. It is foreseen that the energy consumption in buildings located in these climates will continue to increase critically due to the temperature increase associated with climate change. The temperatures predicted mean vote (PMV), electric energy consumption, and CO2 emissions were calculated for three IPCC scenarios. These results will help to identify the impact of climate change on the energy use of the houses built under these weather conditions. The results show that if the conventional concrete blocks continue to be used, the air conditioning energy requirements will increase to 49% for 2030 and 61% by 2050. The proposed cellular concrete could reduce energy consumption between 15% and 28%, and these saving rates would remain in the future. The results indicate that it is necessary to drive the adoption of lightweight materials, so the impact of energy use on climate change can be reduced.

scholarly journals Competition in a Household Energy Conservation Game

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11991
Author(s):  
Jan Dirk Fijnheer ◽  
Herre van Oostendorp ◽  
Geert-Jan Giezeman ◽  
Remco C. Veltkamp
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Attitude Change ◽  
Real World ◽  
Household Energy ◽  
The Real ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Saving Behavior ◽  
And Behavior

This paper presents the results of a game study, comparing Powersaver Game including a competition feature versus the same game excluding a competition feature with respect to energy conservation in the household. In a pretest–posttest design, we tested whether change in attitude, knowledge and behavior with respect to energy conservation in the household was different for participants playing Powersaver Game with or without competition. All energy conservation activities that the application provides (e.g., washing clothes at low temperatures) take place in the real world and feedback is based on real-time energy consumption. This so-called reality-enhanced game approach aims to optimize the transfer between the game world and the real world. Household energy consumption changed significantly and positively in the long term due to competition. A significant difference of 8% in energy consumption between both conditions after the intervention was detected. Besides energy conservation, no further differences were detected between conditions. The chain of events, that an increase in knowledge leads to attitude change, which in turn results in behavior change in the long term is confirmed by means of a path analysis. We conclude that Powersaver Game is effective in the transfer of energy conservation knowledge, which leads to energy saving behavior in the long term while competition additionally contributes to more change in behavior.

scholarly journals Outcome expectancies moderate the association between worry about climate change and personal energy-saving behaviors

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0252105
Author(s):  
Thea Gregersen ◽  
Rouven Doran ◽  
Gisela Böhm ◽  
Wouter Poortinga
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Outcome Expectancies ◽  
Outcome Expectancy ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Change Beliefs ◽  
Personal Energy

This paper explores whether efficacy beliefs can alter the relationship between worry about climate change and personal energy-saving behaviors, controlling for climate change beliefs and socio-demographics. For this purpose, we used data from 23 countries that participated in the European Social Survey Round 8 (N = 44 387). Worry about climate change, personal efficacy, personal outcome expectancy, and collective outcome expectancy were each associated with personal energy-saving behaviors concerning either energy curtailment or energy efficiency. The results further show that outcome expectancies moderate the association between worry about climate change and both types of energy behaviors. Worry was more strongly related to energy curtailment behaviors among those with high levels of personal and collective outcome expectancy. A similar pattern was found for energy efficiency behaviors, which were more strongly predicted by worry about climate change when combined with high levels of collective outcome expectancy. These findings are relevant for climate change communication, especially informational campaigns aiming to lower overall household energy use.

Energy Saving Studies in Industrial Facilities

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Kanoglu ◽  
Ilker Karabay ◽  
Ibrahim Dincer
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Industrial Facilities ◽  
Conservation Measures ◽  
Energy Conservation Measures

Efficient energy use is critical for the success of any industrial facility since reduced energy consumption through energy conservation/saving programs can benefit not only consumers and utilities, but society in general as well. In particular, reduced energy consumption generally leads to reduced emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants into the environment. It also helps reduce the operational costs in the facility. There is a strong need to take some energy saving measures in every plant/ facility. Although these may be quite diverse, some of these measures include thermal insulation, use of more efficient equipment, heat recovery systems, high efficiency lighting, changing the fuel, reducing the cost of compressed air, and enhancing productivity. In this study, some certain energy conservation measures are considered for assessing a packaging film manufacturing facility in Gaziantep, Turkey. Taking advantage of dry and hot climates of the city, cooling compressor inlet air by evaporative cooling technique is also assessed. Our investigation shows that there is a huge room for energy conservation measures. The total savings potential are expected to be 869,350 YTL (about $725,000) representing about 16% of the total energy consumption. The payback periods for the identified measures are justified. We believe that the results are typical rather than exceptional for the industrial sector in Turkey.

scholarly journals Using Characteristic Energy to Study Rural Ethnic Minorities’ Household Energy Consumption and Its Impact Factors in Chongqing, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuxin Mao ◽  
Sha Qiu ◽  
Tao Li ◽  
Mingfang Tang ◽  
Hongbing Deng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Emission Reduction ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Impact Factors ◽  
Characteristic Energy ◽  
Household Energy ◽  
Household Energy Use ◽  
Use Pattern

In the context of general household energy transition, identifying different household energy consumption patterns is of great significance for the formulation of refined energy conservation and emission reduction policies. For historical reasons, the households of ethnic minorities in China tend to face more severe energy poverty problems. In this study, we proposed the concept and research method of characteristic energy, a new method to depict household energy use pattern. Combined with the diversity analysis, the energy use pattern of Tujia and Miao rural households in Chongqing, China, were studied. Households in research area were clustered into four groups with different characteristic energy sources: firewood, electricity, coal and gasoline, representing four types of household energy use pattern. The main impact factors of rural household energy use pattern are electrical appliances and amount of pig raising, indicating that household production and lifestyle play a decisive role in household energy use patterns. In addition, the research depicts the energy consumption characteristics of rural households with different incomes, ethnic groups and in different regions. The study puts forward corresponding energy saving countermeasures for different energy use pattern, helps to identify the heterogeneity of rural household energy use and promote the formulation of refined regional energy conservation and emission reduction policies.

scholarly journals Energy Consumption and Economic Growth: Further Evidence from Taiwan

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Chung-Wei Kao ◽  
Jer-Yuh Wan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Causality Test ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Business Cycle

This paper investigates the nonlinear relationship between energy consumption and GDP in Taiwan. By applying the method of Gonzalo and Pitarakis (2006), we consider the possibility of significant threshold effects within the long-run relationship between the two variables, where the effect is trigged by changes in the phase of the business cycle. The Granger-causality test in a threshold model indicates the relationship between energy consumption and GDP is regime-dependent. A bidirectional relationship between these two variables is observed in the contractionary regime, implying that energy serves as an engine of economic growth and that reductions in energy use will have adverse effects on economic activities. On the other hand, a unidirectional causality running from GDP to energy consumption is detected in the expansionary regime. It indicates energy conservation is feasible in this regime with little or no detrimental effects on economic growth. The policy implications are that energy use and economic growth are jointly reinforcing each other during recessionary periods. However, in periods of high economic growth when energy consumption cannot bring about economic growth, energy conservation policies should be adopted with more aggressive thinking.

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