Efficiency traps beyond the climate crisis: exploration-exploitation trade-offs and rebound effects.

ABSTRACT: Higher levels of economic activity are often accompanied by higher energy use and consumption of natural resources. As fossil fuels still account for 80% of the global energy mix, energy consumption remains closely linked to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and thus to climate change. Under the assumption of sufficiently elastic demand, this reality of global economic development based on permanent growth of economic activity, brings into play the Jevons Paradox, which hypothesises that increases in the efficiency of resource use leads to increases in resource consumption. Previous research on the rebound effects has limitations, including a lack of studies on the connection between reinforcement learning and environmental consequences. This paper develops a mathematical model and computer s

SUBMITTER: Segovia-Martin J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10505854 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature