ECO.10:2 - Problem

Lower unit consumption can make a service cheaper, enable more frequent use, release spending for other activities or make new activities feasible. These responses can offset some or all of the initial saving. The case in which they more than offset it is commonly called Jevons’s paradox or backfire.

An increase observed after an efficiency improvement does not establish this mechanism: demand could have grown anyway. Nor does higher output automatically defeat the purpose; growth, accessibility and a resource cap are different purposes.