Encouraging structural changes to private homes to reduce carbon emissions: a systematic review and meta-analysis of (quasi-)experimental evidence

Reducing emissions from the building sector is one of the key steps in combating climate change, as the building sector is responsible for about 38% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Private households have opportunities to reduce a significant proportion of these emissions by improving the energy efficiency of their buildings, e.g. by refurbishing their insulation or heating systems. While such structural changes provide societal benefits, households may still decide against energy efficiency related renovations due to the associated financial burden or behavioral economic factors, such as status quo bias, hyperbolic discounting, or a lack of information. This review aims to synthesize evidence on policy interventions that reduce such barriers and encourage households to implement energy efficiency improvements. With a machine learning assisted systematic review and meta-analysis, this study will quantitatively evaluate relevant literature across domains and assess how these interventions affect households’ decision to renovate. Until WWCSS, we aim to complete the first phases of screening and tagging of studies in order to present a preliminary overview and initial results.