نگرش مصرف کنندگان چینی به صرفه جویی در انرژی: مورد وسایل خانگی الکتریکی در چونگ کینگ

Energy saving is now an important component of China’s energy policy. This paper reports the findings of a survey carried out in 2009 and 2010 of 246 citizens at different locations in the municipality of Chongqing in order to reveal information about attitudes towards energy and energy saving in the context of household electrical appliances. This study shows that citizens in Chongqing receive relatively little information and guidance on how to save energy in the home and that their stated level of knowledge on this subject is also rather limited. Respondents showed some willingness to save energy as long as this did not reduce their comfort and convenience, and they appeared likely to respond to economic incentives, such as high electricity prices or discounts on appliances. But they seemed to be unaware of the potential for information to help them save energy. The survey also demonstrated a high degree of heterogeneity across society with respect to sources of information and trust in those sources and with respect to attitudes to energy saving at home. These results show that the government needs to substantially adjust its strategies for promoting household energy saving.

Since 2005 energy efficiency has been the top priority in China’s national energy policy, with the twin aims of addressing both energy security and climate change. Nationwide energy shortages arising from rapid and energy-intensive economic growth persuaded the government to put in place a range of measures with the objective of reducing intensity by 20% between 2005 and 2010. The primary focus of these measures was on industry, as this sector held the promise for easily achievable gains in energy savings, but buildings, transportation and government procurement were also targeted. In the residential sector, steps were taken to raise minimum energy efficiency standards for electrical appliances, and to enforce energy efficiency labelling of appliances. Programmes were also run to raise awareness among citizens of the importance of saving energy at home. These policies and measures were first promulgated by the central government and then implemented by the Provincial Municipalities and Autonomous Regions, with each of these jurisdictions receiving individual targets for each year up to 2010 (Andrews-Speed, 2009 and Zhou et al., 2010). Official statistics published by the government early in the year 2011 indicate that the reduction in energy intensity between 2005 and 2010 amounted to 19.1% (Li, 2011), just short of the 20% target, but a substantial achievement nonetheless. This success can be attributed mainly to improvements in industrial energy efficiency, and only to a lesser extent to adjustments in the structure of the economy or to improved energy efficiency and energy savings in other sectors (Levine et al., 2010). The success of the policies directed at the industrial sector was due, in part, to the relatively small number of highly energy intensive enterprises which needed to be targeted in order to achieve a large saving of energy. A more profound challenge lies in the need to promote energy saving in the residential sector, especially in urban areas. By energy saving, we mean a reduction in the total use of energy through using more energy-efficient appliances and using these appliances less frequently. In China, as in many industrialising countries, this challenge is formidable for two main reasons. First, energy consumption in the residential sector is rising faster than in any other sector. Household energy demand in China doubled between 2000 and 2008, rising from 7% to 11% of national energy consumption. Over the same period, residential consumption of electricity tripled. To a great extent this would have been driven by a rise in the number of household appliances. For example the number of air conditioners rose from thirty per one hundred urban households in 2000 to one hundred appliances per one hundred urban households in 2008 (National Bureau of Statistics, 2010). Second, instead of a few thousand energy-intensive enterprises whose behaviour can be directed through traditional administrative instruments, China has about 620 million urban residents in about 200 million households (National Bureau of Statistics, 2010). Changing behaviours across this population will prove to be greatly more challenging than in heavy industry. As will be described below, China’s central government has introduced a number of policy instruments to be implemented nationally, or by provincial and city governments. These include raising the energy efficiency standards of appliances, energy efficiency labelling of appliances, offering discounts on the purchase price of the most energy efficient household appliances, and starting schemes to buy-back old appliances. Published studies in the English language on energy saving in China’s residential sector are relatively few. The majority fall into one of two groups. The first group examined total residential energy consumption, with an urban or rural focus (e.g., Zhang, 2004 and Tonooka et al., 2006). The second, and larger, group analysed the ownership of household energy-using appliances and the efforts taken by the government to raise efficiency standards and to enforce energy labelling (e.g., Fridley et al., 2001, Brockett et al., 2002, Lin and Rosenquist, 2008, Levine et al., 2010, Zhou et al., 2010, Zhou et al., 2011 and Tao and Yu, 2011). The link between lifestyle and energy use has been identified, as have risks of a rebound effect arising from improved energy efficiency (Wei et al., 2007, Murata et al., 2008, Ouyang et al., 2010 and Yu et al., 2011). Reports from systematic studies into awareness of, attitudes towards and behaviour with respect to energy saving in Chinese households have only started to appear in any number since 2009. Surveys in Beijing Municipality and in Liaoning Provinces investigated environmental awareness and willingness to save energy (Feng et al., 2010, Wang et al., 2011 and Yu et al., 2011). These and other projects which examined how the characteristics of buildings determine behaviour and energy consumption (Chen et al., 2009, Chen et al., 2010, Chen et al., 2011 and Ouyang and Hokao, 2009) have identified a range of factors which appear to determine energy use behaviours in the home. These included the age and size of the dwelling, the ownership of the home, and the age and number of household members. The aim of this study is to examine the knowledge, awareness and stated preferences of citizens in Chongqing Municipality, south-west China, with respect to energy saving in general and specifically with respect to household electrical appliances. The main focus was on information sources and stated intentions of changing behaviour. The study draws on a questionnaire survey with 246 respondents carried out in Chongqing during the period 2009–2010. An earlier paper (Ma et al., 2011) reported some preliminary and partial results from an initial sample of 182 individuals. The current paper presents a more detailed analysis from the completed survey. It starts by explaining the rationale for the study and providing background information on the Chongqing region. A brief summary of the survey itself is followed by a presentation of the results, a discussion and the conclusions.

China is seeking to undertake a socio-economic transition to a low-carbon economy. Since 2005 the government has taken steps to constrain energy intensity, with particular focus on the industrial sector. These efforts have met with some success. But in the longer term, the attitudes and behaviours of citizens towards energy saving will need to change if this path is to be sustained. This in turn requires a range of policy instruments to be deployed. China’s government has, to date, preferred to use administrative instruments such as standards and labelling, and has used economic instruments more sparingly, preferring discounts for efficient appliances to raising electricity prices for households. The third set of instruments involves information and education which can provide powerful encouragement for behavioural change if employed appropriately in combination with the other two types of instrument. This study has shown that citizens in Chongqing receive relatively little information and guidance on how to save energy in the home and that their stated level of knowledge on this subject is also rather limited. In general, respondents showed some willingness to save energy as long as this did not reduce their comfort and convenience, and they appeared likely to respond to economic incentives, such as high electricity prices or discounts on appliances. But they also appeared to be unaware of the potential for information to help them save energy. The survey demonstrated a high degree of heterogeneity across society with respect to sources of information and trust in those sources and with respect to attitudes to energy saving at home. These conclusions are broadly consistent with the results reported from recent surveys in Liaoning and Beijing (Feng et al., 2010 and Wang et al., 2011) and also with wider international experience. But this study has elaborated further the degree of heterogeneity across society and the extent of the inadequacy of current government efforts to inform its citizens about how they can save energy at home. It has also identified certain characteristics of Chinese households may be distinctive. In order to successfully continue the transition to a low-carbon economy, China’s government will need to develop new strategies and measures to inform and educate its citizens on energy saving at home. The detailed design and the execution of these policies should be carried out at local level, in order to take into account heterogeneities in society and to ensure that the actors proving the information are close to the households. Building the trust of society in these actors will be a major challenge.