Increasing the energy productivity in order to use energy in the production and consumption process as economically as possible, is an important contribution to environmental sustainability. The Paper "Green Growth Unravelled" investigates the question to what extent productivity increases create "unwanted side effects" in form of an increased demand for energy (so called rebound effects) thus counteracting the goal of energy conservation. The text differentiates 13 possible rebound effects, sketches out their quantitative dimension, and describes the difficulties to prevent them with political measures.
Written by Tilman Santarius of the Wuppertal Institute and published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation the paper is now available in English. It can be downloaded at the Website of the Foundation.