Policies to reduce the energy efficiency gap in China

Though promoting energy efficiency plays an important role in energy saving and emissions reduction, there are many barriers which impede the adoption of energy-efficient technologies or products, from market failure to behavioral anomalies. This leads to the gap between actual and optimal investment in energy efficiency, which is referred to “energy efficiency gap.” The energy efficiency policies in China offer valuable insights into effective government interventions to overcome these barriers and promote investments in energy efficiency in different sectors. This chapter discusses the potential barriers in each of four sectors: industrial sector, residential sector, buildingsector, and transport sector, and then summarizes the energy efficiency policies that could help reduce these barriers in these sectors.