IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v36y2008i11p4012-4021.html

Towards sustainability of energy systems: A primer on how to apply the concept of energy services to identify necessary trends and policies

Author

Listed:
  • Haas, Reinhard
  • Nakicenovic, Nebojsa
  • Ajanovic, Amela
  • Faber, Thomas
  • Kranzl, Lukas
  • Müller, Andreas
  • Resch, Gustav

Abstract

Virtually all goods and services that characterize modern societies' welfare depend on the provision of commercial energy. The core objective of this paper is to identify necessary changes in trends for achieving a transition towards more sustainable energy systems and development paths. The major conclusions of this analysis are (i) a rigorous rethinking process has to take place to identify which level of energy services per capita lead to enhancing human welfare and quality of life; (ii) a significant increase in energy conversion efficiency has to be triggered to finally provide energy services with far less input of energy than today; (iii) a continuous increase in the share of renewable energy sources and other low-emission options has to be brought about; (iv) however, as history has shown this process of technological learning has to be accompanied by proper energy price and regulatory policies. Otherwise, it is very likely that energy conservation gains due to technical efficiency improvements will be outweighed again by increases in energy service demand and, straightforward, energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Haas, Reinhard & Nakicenovic, Nebojsa & Ajanovic, Amela & Faber, Thomas & Kranzl, Lukas & Müller, Andreas & Resch, Gustav, 2008. "Towards sustainability of energy systems: A primer on how to apply the concept of energy services to identify necessary trends and policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4012-4021, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:36:y:2008:i:11:p:4012-4021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(08)00301-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wirl, Franz, 1995. "Impact of Regulation on Demand Side Conservation Programs," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 43-62, January.
    2. Costanza, Robert & Fisher, Brendan & Ali, Saleem & Beer, Caroline & Bond, Lynne & Boumans, Roelof & Danigelis, Nicholas L. & Dickinson, Jennifer & Elliott, Carolyn & Farley, Joshua & Gayer, Diane Elli, 2007. "Quality of life: An approach integrating opportunities, human needs, and subjective well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 267-276, March.
    3. Verbruggen, Aviel, 2006. "Electricity intensity backstop level to meet sustainable backstop supply technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1310-1317, July.
    4. Robert J. Barro, 2013. "Inflation and Economic Growth," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 14(1), pages 121-144, May.
    5. Haas, Reinhard & Schipper, Lee, 1998. "Residential energy demand in OECD-countries and the role of irreversible efficiency improvements," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 421-442, September.
    6. repec:aen:journl:1991v12-04-a02 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Schipper, Lee & Haas, Reinhard, 1997. "The political relevance of energy and CO2 indicators-An introduction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(7-9), pages 639-649.
    8. Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Arnulf Grubler, 2000. "Energy and the protection of the atmosphere," International Journal of Global Energy Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 13(1/2/3), pages 4-57.
    9. repec:aen:journl:2006v27-01-a07 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Howarth, Richard B. & Schipper, Lee & Duerr, Peter A. & Strøm, Steinar, 1991. "Manufacturing energy use in eight OECD countries : Decomposing the impacts of changes in output, industry structure and energy intensity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 135-142, April.
    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. Ajanovic, Amela & Haas, Reinhard, 2012. "The role of efficiency improvements vs. price effects for modeling passenger car transport demand and energy demand—Lessons from European countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 36-46.
    2. Kim, Young Se, 2015. "Electricity consumption and economic development: Are countries converging to a common trend?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 192-202.
    3. Peter H. Egger & Michaela Kesina & Sergey Nigai, 2013. "Contagious Energy Prices," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 349-362, March.
    4. Sergey BLINOV, 2017. "Inflation and economic growth," Journal of Economics Library, KSP Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 345-358, September.
    5. Kristinn Hermannsson & Patrizio Lecca, 2016. "Human Capital in Economic Development: From Labour Productivity to Macroeconomic Impact," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(1), pages 24-36, March.
    6. Vieira, Flávio & MacDonald, Ronald & Damasceno, Aderbal, 2012. "The role of institutions in cross-section income and panel data growth models: A deeper investigation on the weakness and proliferation of instruments," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 127-140.
    7. Willem Thorbecke, 2002. "A Dual Mandate for the Federal Reserve: The Pursuit of Price Stability and Full Employment," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 28(2), pages 255-268, Spring.
    8. JOrge Alonso Lotero Contreras & Sergio Restrepo & Liliana Yaned Franco Vásquez, 2000. "Modelos de desarrollo y convergencia interregional de la productividad industrial en Colombia," Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Economía, issue 52, pages 51-85, Enero Jun.
    9. Saaed, A.A.J., 2007. "Inflation and Economic Growth in Kuwait: 1985-2005. Evidence from Co-Integration and Error Correction Model," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 7(1).
    10. Philip R. Lane, 1999. "What Determines the Nominal Exchange Rate? Some Cross Sectional Evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 32(1), pages 118-138, February.
    11. Juan Pineiro Chousa & Haider Ali Khan & Davit N. Melikyan & Artur Tamazian, 2005. "Institutional and Financial Determinants of Development: New Evidence from Advanced and Emerging Markets," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-326, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    12. Neelam Timsina, 2016. "Determinants of Bank Lending in Nepal," NRB Economic Review, Nepal Rastra Bank, Economic Research Department, vol. 28(2), pages 19-42, October.
    13. Aysit Tansel & Nil Demet Güngör, 2016. "Gender Effects of Education on Economic Development in Turkey," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Nadereh Chamlou & Massoud Karshenas (ed.), Women, Work and Welfare in the Middle East and North Africa The Role of Socio-demographics, Entrepreneurship and Public Policies, chapter 3, pages 57-86, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    14. Yuo-Hsien Shiau & Su-Fen Yang & Rishan Adha & Syamsiyatul Muzayyanah, 2022. "Modeling Industrial Energy Demand in Relation to Subsector Manufacturing Output and Climate Change: Artificial Neural Network Insights," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, March.
    15. Andersson, Fredrik N.G. & Edgerton, David L. & Opper, Sonja, 2013. "A Matter of Time: Revisiting Growth Convergence in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 239-251.
    16. Albert J.F. Yang & William N. Trumbull & Chin Wei Yang & Bwo‐Nung Huang, 2011. "On The Relationship Between Military Expenditure, Threat, And Economic Growth: A Nonlinear Approach," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 449-457, April.
    17. Arturo Galindo & Alberto Chong & César Calderón, 2001. "Structure and Development of Financial Institutions and Links with Trust: Cross-Country Evidence," Research Department Publications 4251, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    18. Flora Bellone, 1997. "Les difficultés de la réalisation du rattrapage technologique. Une approche théorique de la convergence conditionnelle," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 48(3), pages 409-418.
    19. Claude DIEBOLT & Jamel TRABELSI, 2009. "Human Capital and French Macroeconomic Growth in the Long Run," Economies et Sociétés (Serie 'Histoire Economique Quantitative'), Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), issue 40, pages 901-917, May.
    20. Pogany, Peter, 2013. "Thermodynamic Isolation and the New World Order," MPRA Paper 49924, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:enepol:v:36:y:2008:i:11:p:4012-4021. 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/enpol .

    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.