ASIA/OCEANIA WEBINAR RESEARCH WEBINAR



  

I'm excited to announce that our inaugural webinar under the Asia-Oceania Energy Economics Webinar series will be held on September 19th. Please use the link below to register for the event. It is grateful if you could help disseminate our webinar information to your colleagues, friends, students, and anyone who are interested in to join us.


 

Seats are limited, sign up to ensure a spot!

Program Description: Improving energy efficiency is widely recognized as one of the most cost-effective strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, manufacturing firms frequently fail to adopt recommended measures, a persistent puzzle often referred to as the “energy efficiency gap.” While prior studies emphasize economic and informational barriers, less attention has been paid to operational risks tied to core production processes. This study examines how such risks influence adoption decisions and whether external governance can help mitigate them. Drawing on 52,181 recommendations from 7,340 energy audits conducted across 3,466 Korean manufacturing plants between 2007 and 2022, we find that measures targeting direct production equipment (DPE) are significantly more cost-effective than those targeting indirect production equipment, but are substantially less likely to be adopted. This reluctance intensifies over successive audits, as plants exhaust readily available DPE opportunities and fewer new ones emerge. However, auditor experience alleviates this barrier: firms are more likely to adopt DPE-related recommendations when auditors have a strong record of prior successful adoptions, often by recommending activities proven effective in other plants. These findings underscore the importance of operational risks in shaping EE adoption and highlight the critical role of auditors as conduits of practical knowledge. Strengthening auditor expertise and strategically allocating them across plants could enhance program effectiveness and accelerate industrial decarbonization.

Discussant:

Hongyan Zhang is the Associate Professor in School of Economics and Management China University of Petroleum (East China). Her research interests include energy economics and management, energy technology innovation management. She has published in top journals including Nature Communications, The Energy Journal, Energy Economics. Several advisory reports she authored have been adopted by central and provincial government departments. She was awarded the title of Taishan Young Scholar by Shandong Province.

Jihyo Kim is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Green Growth & Sustainability at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). With a PhD from Seoul National University, her research focuses on energy policy, climate mitigation, energy demand analysis, and international energy markets. She has an extensive publication record in peer-reviewed journals such as Energy Economics, Energy Policy, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, and has received multiple awards for her research, including several Best Paper Awards from KEEI. Dr. Kim also actively serves as a member of the Expert Committee for the Presidential Commission on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth in South Korea.

In addition, please use the following link to suggest/nominate the speaker for our next webinars: https://forms.office.com/r/0vfLrnaKgy.

Register →

Event Date: September 19, 2025

Event Time: 10:am-11:00am (UTC+8)

Topic: Energy Efficiency Gap and Operational Risk in Manufacturing

Discussant: Hongyan Zhang

Speaker: Jihyo Kim

Price: FREE


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