China’s Promoting Energy-Efficient Products for the Benefit of the People Program in 2012: Results and analysis of the consumer impact study

Application of best practice for setting minimum energy efficiency standards in technically disadvantaged countries: Case study of Air Conditioners in Brunei Darussalam

“…8), which is the same as the Swedish consumers, higher than the Chinese consumers (less than 10%) but lower than the average European consumers (44-50%) [17]. Our findings of WTP is reasonable when considering the relative income levels among consumers in China, Brunei and European.…”

“…An IEA report found that in the US, energy consumption of refrigerators and freezers reduced 60% between 1980 and 2001 due primarily to the introduction of MEPS in 1993 [19]. The Chinese case study [17] also shows that an effective incentive set by subsidy may have to be at the size of 20-30% of the retailing prices. As summarized in the literature [4,20], many studies revealed that consumers have extremely high discount rates between 20% and 100%.…”

“…The finding of Zeng et al [17] suggests that MEPS is limited by consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for efficient products: most consumers in China are only willing to pay less than 10% more for efficient appliances. The WTP of Chinese consumers, however, is noticeably lower than those in European countries, who were found on average to be willing to pay 44% and 50% more for higher efficiency refrigerators and TVs, respectively [17]. Even in oil producing countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the average WTP for energy efficiency products is about 15% [18].…”

Improving China’s Environment: Increasing Adoption Rates of Energy Efficient Household Appliances

“…In 2012, The State Council expanded the "Promoting Energy-Efficiency Appliances for the Benefit of People Program" by committing 26.5 billion RMB ($4.26 billion USD) to the newest phase of this program. This subsidy program was popular but there is limited evidence that it had the intended effect on individual's behavior (Zeng, Yu, & Li, 2014).…”

“…Twenty-six percent of consumers had no interest in the government subsidy of energy efficient appliances since they believed the process to claim the subsidy was too complicated. While more than half of the consumers surveyed had heard of the subsidy program and were aware of energy efficient labeling on appliances, most lacked a meaningful understanding of either (Zeng et al, 2014). …”