ABSTRACT
Various approaches to reducing household greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are available to policymakers, including promoting energy-efficient appliances and automobiles (e.g. Parts II and III in this volume), encouraging energy-saving behaviors (e.g. Costanzo et al. 1986), and constructing energy-efficient houses. In 2011, approximately 66 percent of energy consumption in the Japanese residential sector was attributable to home heating and cooling, water heating, and the use of kitchen appliances (Energy Conservation Center Japan [ECCJ] 2013). The remainder was primarily attributable to automobiles. Because Parts II and III of this book address energy-efficient appliances and automobiles, respectively, this chapter focuses on energy-efficient houses. This chapter examines the effectiveness of a large-scale program implemented in Japan that subsidized the construction of energy-efficient “eco-friendly” houses. The goal of the program was to substitute environmentally-friendly housing materials for conventional ones, thereby reducing household GHG emissions.
