Letter: Energy use on the rebound

ROBERT Sansom (Letters, 27 May) thinks that electricity demand can be reduced. This optimistic notion runs up against the “rebound effect”, whereby attempts to reduce energy use result, surprisingly, in an increase, not a decrease (this has been known for 147 years). In the UK, electricity consumption grew by 3.5 per cent from 2009 to 2010, but the Scottish Government has ceased to provide data for Scotland.

Steuart Campbell, Edinburgh