IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v88y2013icp148-158.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An international assessment of energy security performance

Author

Listed:
  • Sovacool, Benjamin K.

Abstract

Energy security has in recent years grown as a salient policy and political issue. To better understand energy security and sustainability concerns, this study's main objective is to present an energy security index which measures national performance on energy security over time. Based on three years of research involving interviews, surveys, and an international workshop, this study conceptualizes energy security as consisting of the interconnected factors of availability, affordability, efficiency, sustainability, and governance. It then matches these factors with 20 metrics comprising an energy security index, measuring international performance across 18 countries from 1990 to 2010. It offers three case studies of Japan (top performer), Laos (middle performer), and Myanmar (w]orst performer) to provide context to the index's results. It then presents four conclusions. First, a majority of countries analyzed have regressed in terms of their energy security. Second, despite the near total deterioration of energy security, a great disparity exists between countries, with some clear leaders such as Japan. Third, tradeoffs exist within different components of energy security. Fourth, creating energy security is as much a matter of domestic policy from within as it is from foreign policy without.

Suggested Citation

  • Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2013. "An international assessment of energy security performance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 148-158.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:88:y:2013:i:c:p:148-158
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.01.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800913000396
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.01.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Florini, Ann & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2009. "Who governs energy? The challenges facing global energy governance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5239-5248, December.
    2. Hayami, Yujiro & Ogasawara, Junichi, 1999. "Changes in the Sources of Modern Economic Growth: Japan Compared with the United States," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-21, March.
    3. repec:zbw:rwirep:0104 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Kanagawa, Makoto & Nakata, Toshihiko, 2006. "Analysis of the impact of electricity grid interconnection between Korea and Japan--Feasibility study for energy network in Northeast Asia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1015-1025, June.
    5. Löschel, Andreas & Moslener, Ulf & Rübbelke, Dirk T.G., 2010. "Indicators of energy security in industrialised countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1665-1671, April.
    6. Fukasaku, Yukiko, 1995. "Energy and environment policy integration: The case of energy conservation policies and technologies in Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(12), pages 1063-1076, December.
    7. Lefèvre, Nicolas, 2010. "Measuring the energy security implications of fossil fuel resource concentration," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1635-1644, April.
    8. Mustonen, S.M., 2010. "Rural energy survey and scenario analysis of village energy consumption: A case study in Lao People's Democratic Republic," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 1040-1048, February.
    9. Kruyt, Bert & van Vuuren, D.P. & de Vries, H.J.M. & Groenenberg, H., 2009. "Indicators for energy security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2166-2181, June.
    10. Gnansounou, Edgard, 2008. "Assessing the energy vulnerability: Case of industrialised countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 3734-3744, October.
    11. von Hippel, David & Suzuki, Tatsujiro & Williams, James H. & Savage, Timothy & Hayes, Peter, 2011. "Energy security and sustainability in Northeast Asia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 6719-6730.
    12. Nagy, Károly, 2009. "The additional benefits of setting up an energy security centre," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1715-1720.
    13. Marks, Stephen V., 2011. "Lao economic policies and effective rates of protection," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 115-127, April.
    14. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Mukherjee, Ishani & Drupady, Ira Martina & D’Agostino, Anthony L., 2011. "Evaluating energy security performance from 1990 to 2010 for eighteen countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 5846-5853.
    15. Frondel, Manuel & Ritter, Nolan & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2009. "Measuring Energy Supply Risks: A G7 Ranking," Ruhr Economic Papers 104, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    16. Costantini, Valeria & Gracceva, Francesco & Markandya, Anil & Vicini, Giorgio, 2007. "Security of energy supply: Comparing scenarios from a European perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 210-226, January.
    17. Gasparatos, Alexandros & Gadda, Tatiana, 2009. "Environmental support, energy security and economic growth in Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 4038-4048, October.
    18. Takase, Kae & Suzuki, Tatsujiro, 2011. "The Japanese energy sector: Current situation, and future paths," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 6731-6744.
    19. Jansen, Jaap C. & Seebregts, Ad J., 2010. "Long-term energy services security: What is it and how can it be measured and valued?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1654-1664, April.
    20. Geller, Howard & Harrington, Philip & Rosenfeld, Arthur H. & Tanishima, Satoshi & Unander, Fridtjof, 2006. "Polices for increasing energy efficiency: Thirty years of experience in OECD countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 556-573, March.
    21. Stirling, Andy, 2010. "Multicriteria diversity analysis: A novel heuristic framework for appraising energy portfolios," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1622-1634, April.
    22. Ediger, Volkan S. & Hosgor, Enes & Surmeli, A. Nesen & Tatlidil, Huseyin, 2007. "Fossil fuel sustainability index: An application of resource management," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2969-2977, May.
    23. Watcharejyothin, Mayurachat & Shrestha, Ram M., 2009. "Effects of cross-border power trade between Laos and Thailand: Energy security and environmental implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1782-1792, May.
    24. Gupta, Eshita, 2008. "Oil vulnerability index of oil-importing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 1195-1211, March.
    25. Smits, Mattijs & Bush, Simon R., 2010. "A light left in the dark: The practice and politics of pico-hydropower in the Lao PDR," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 116-127, January.
    26. Krongkaew, Medhi, 2004. "The development of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS): real promise or false hope?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 977-998, October.
    27. Vivoda, Vlado, 2010. "Evaluating energy security in the Asia-Pacific region: A novel methodological approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 5258-5263, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Mukherjee, Ishani, 2011. "Conceptualizing and measuring energy security: A synthesized approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 5343-5355.
    2. Chuang, Ming Chih & Ma, Hwong Wen, 2013. "Energy security and improvements in the function of diversity indices—Taiwan energy supply structure case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 9-20.
    3. Ren, Jingzheng & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2014. "Quantifying, measuring, and strategizing energy security: Determining the most meaningful dimensions and metrics," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 838-849.
    4. Månsson, André & Johansson, Bengt & Nilsson, Lars J., 2014. "Assessing energy security: An overview of commonly used methodologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-14.
    5. Ang, B.W. & Choong, W.L. & Ng, T.S., 2015. "Energy security: Definitions, dimensions and indexes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1077-1093.
    6. Böhringer, Christoph & Bortolamedi, Markus, 2015. "Sense and no(n)-sense of energy security indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 359-371.
    7. Le, Thai-Ha & Chang, Youngho & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Yoshino, Naoyuki, 2019. "Energy insecurity in Asia: A multi-dimensional analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 84-95.
    8. Larsen, Erik R. & Osorio, Sebastian & van Ackere, Ann, 2017. "A framework to evaluate security of supply in the electricity sector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 646-655.
    9. Jewell, Jessica & Cherp, Aleh & Riahi, Keywan, 2014. "Energy security under de-carbonization scenarios: An assessment framework and evaluation under different technology and policy choices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 743-760.
    10. Selvakkumaran, Sujeetha & Limmeechokchai, Bundit, 2013. "Energy security and co-benefits of energy efficiency improvement in three Asian countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 491-503.
    11. Thauan Santos & Amaro Olímpio Pereira Júnior & Emilio Lèbre La Rovere, 2017. "Evaluating Energy Policies through the Use of a Hybrid Quantitative Indicator-Based Approach: The Case of Mercosur," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Liu, Litao & Cao, Zhi & Liu, Xiaojie & Shi, Lei & Cheng, Shengkui & Liu, Gang, 2020. "Oil security revisited: An assessment based on complex network analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    13. Sato, Masahiro & Kharrazi, Ali & Nakayama, Hirofumi & Kraines, Steven & Yarime, Masaru, 2017. "Quantifying the supplier-portfolio diversity of embodied energy: Strategic implications for strengthening energy resilience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 41-52.
    14. Pan, Yuling & Dong, Feng, 2022. "Design of energy use rights trading policy from the perspective of energy vulnerability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    15. Kapil Narula & B. Sudhakara Reddy, 2014. "Three Blind Men and an Elephant: The Case of Energy Indices to Measure Energy Security and Sustainability," Working Papers id:5989, eSocialSciences.
    16. Narula, Kapil & Reddy, B. Sudhakara, 2015. "Three blind men and an elephant: The case of energy indices to measure energy security and energy sustainability," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 148-158.
    17. Radovanović, Mirjana & Filipović, Sanja & Pavlović, Dejan, 2017. "Energy security measurement – A sustainable approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P2), pages 1020-1032.
    18. Blum, Helcio & Legey, Luiz F.L., 2012. "The challenging economics of energy security: Ensuring energy benefits in support to sustainable development," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1982-1989.
    19. Wang, Deqing & Tian, Sihua & Fang, Lei & Xu, Yan, 2020. "A functional index model for dynamically evaluating China's energy security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    20. Song, Yan & Zhang, Ming & Sun, Ruifeng, 2019. "Using a new aggregated indicator to evaluate China's energy security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 167-174.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:88:y:2013:i:c:p:148-158. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.