Editing IPCC:AR6/WGIII/Chapter-5 (section)

===== Mitigation potentials of sharing economy strategies =====

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Sharing economy initiatives play a central role in enabling individuals to share underutilised products. While the literature on the net effects of sharing economy strategies is still limited, available studies have presented different mitigation potentials to date, as shown in Figure 5.13. For many sharing economy strategies, there is a risk of negative rebound and induced demand effects, which may occur by changing consuming patterns, for example if savings from sharing housing are used to finance air travel. Thus, the mitigation potentials of sharing economy strategies will depend on stringent public policy and consumer awareness that reins in runaway consumption effects. Shared economy solutions generally relate to the ‘Avoid’ and ‘Shift’ strategies (Sections 5.1 and 5.3.2). On the one hand, they hold potential for providing similar or improved services for well-being (mobility, shelter) at reduced energy and resource input, with the proper policy signals and consumer responses. On the other hand, shared economy strategies may increase emissions, for example shared mobility may shift activity away from public transit and lead to lower vehicle occupancy, deadheading, and use of inefficient shared vehicles ( [[#Jones--2019|Jones and Leibowicz 2019]] ; [[#Merlin--2019|Merlin 2019]] ; [[#Bonilla-Alicea--2020|Bonilla-Alicea et al. 2020]] ; [[#Ward--2021|Ward et al. 2021]] ). Similarly to digitalisation, there is ''medium evidence'' that the sharing economy can reduce overall emissions, energy use, and activity levels, with ''medium agreement'' on the scale of potential savings if induced demand and rebound effects can be carefully managed to avoid negative outcomes.

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