Promoting energy efficiency in Japanese manufacturing industry through energy audits: Role of information provision, disclosure, target setting, inspection, reward, and organizational structure
研究日本制造业中能源审计与信息提供、目标设定等附加政策工具的互补性，发现组合使用能更有效减少二氧化碳排放，对政策制定者和企业管理者有参考价值。
An energy audit is a popular policy instrument for improving energy efficiency in facilities. However, it is unclear whether they serve to improve energy efficiency, because even under energy audits, several barriers to energy efficiency exist. Additional practices such as information provision, target setting, or reward by governments can make energy audits more effective. This study investigates the complementarity of energy audits and these practices by focusing on the Emission Reduction Program, an energy audit unique to Japan. Using municipality-level data, we show that target setting, inspection of planning, information provision, reward, and designating the department responsible for tackling climate change, complementarily reduce CO2 emissions via facilities under the Emission Reduction Program. Our results suggest that energy audit is more effective in reducing CO2 emissions when combined with additional policy instruments.