IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v64y2014icp168-174.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Some inconvenient theses

Author

Listed:
  • Trainer, Ted

Abstract

There is a strong tendency for energy technologists and policy analysts to believe that energy demand can be met and associated problems including climate change can be solved, and to focus attention on finding the best technologies to achieve these goals. They tend not to be comfortable with any suggestion that there might be insurmountable limits and insoluble problems, or that the problems they are working on require social solutions rather than technical solutions. Various contributions to this Special Edition provide illustrations. This paper explores some challenges to the dominant Promethian world view. These include a consideration of the magnitude of the energy and other problems, the possibility that renewable energy cannot solve them, the significance of energy and of declining EROI for economic growth, and the possible effects of rising resource input costs and unstable capital markets for energy investment. Finally the ultimate heresy is considered, the possibility that access to abundant energy would not be good for us. In summary, it is suggested that coercive limits to growth are being encountered and that the resulting problems cannot be solved by action on the supply side but will require a radical rethinking of social goals, systems and values.

Suggested Citation

  • Trainer, Ted, 2014. "Some inconvenient theses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 168-174.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:64:y:2014:i:c:p:168-174
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151300493X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.008?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. Crawford, R.H. & Treloar, G.J. & Fuller, R.J. & Bazilian, M., 2006. "Life-cycle energy analysis of building integrated photovoltaic systems (BiPVs) with heat recovery unit," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 559-575, December.
    2. Ayres, Robert U. & Warr, Benjamin, 2005. "Accounting for growth: the role of physical work," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 181-209, June.
    3. Malte Meinshausen & Nicolai Meinshausen & William Hare & Sarah C. B. Raper & Katja Frieler & Reto Knutti & David J. Frame & Myles R. Allen, 2009. "Greenhouse-gas emission targets for limiting global warming to 2 °C," Nature, Nature, vol. 458(7242), pages 1158-1162, April.
    4. Oswald, James & Raine, Mike & Ashraf-Ball, Hezlin, 2008. "Will British weather provide reliable electricity?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 3202-3215, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 2017. "Buffering volatility: A study on the limits of Germany's energy revolution," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 130-150.
    2. Ferroni, Ferruccio & Hopkirk, Robert J., 2016. "Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI) for photovoltaic solar systems in regions of moderate insolation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 336-344.
    3. Moriarty, Patrick & Honnery, Damon, 2019. "Ecosystem maintenance energy and the need for a green EROI," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 229-234.
    4. Coram, Alex & Katzner, Donald W., 2018. "Reducing fossil-fuel emissions: Dynamic paths for alternative energy-producing technologies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 179-189.
    5. Patrick Moriarty & Damon Honnery, 2019. "Energy Accounting for a Renewable Energy Future," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-16, November.
    6. Patrick Moriarty & Damon Honnery, 2019. "Energy Efficiency or Conservation for Mitigating Climate Change?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-17, September.

    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. Trainer, Ted, 2013. "Can Europe run on renewable energy? A negative case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 845-850.
    2. Lenzen, Manfred & McBain, Bonnie & Trainer, Ted & Jütte, Silke & Rey-Lescure, Olivier & Huang, Jing, 2016. "Simulating low-carbon electricity supply for Australia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 553-564.
    3. Richard Green and Nicholas Vasilakos, 2012. "Storing Wind for a Rainy Day: What Kind of Electricity Does Denmark Export?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    4. Trainer, Ted, 2010. "Can renewables etc. solve the greenhouse problem? The negative case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4107-4114, August.
    5. Ted Trainer, 2012. "A Critique of the Ipcc Report on Renewable Energy (2011A)," Energy & Environment, , vol. 23(5), pages 849-855, July.
    6. Marco Sakai & Paul E. Brockway & John R. Barrett & Peter G. Taylor, 2018. "Thermodynamic Efficiency Gains and their Role as a Key ‘Engine of Economic Growth’," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Kubik, M.L. & Coker, P.J. & Hunt, C., 2012. "The role of conventional generation in managing variability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 253-261.
    8. Fankhauser, Samuel & Hepburn, Cameron, 2010. "Designing carbon markets. Part I: Carbon markets in time," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4363-4370, August.
    9. van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. & Botzen, W.J.W., 2015. "Monetary valuation of the social cost of CO2 emissions: A critical survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 33-46.
    10. Santos, João & Domingos, Tiago & Sousa, Tânia & St. Aubyn, Miguel, 2016. "Does a small cost share reflect a negligible role for energy in economic production? Testing for aggregate production functions including capital, labor, and useful exergy through a cointegration-base," MPRA Paper 70850, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Simon Levin & Anastasios Xepapadeas, 2021. "On the Coevolution of Economic and Ecological Systems," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 355-377, October.
    12. Kriegler, Elmar, 2011. "Comment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 594-596, July.
    13. Sam Fankhauser & Cameron Hepburn, 2009. "Carbon markets in space and time," GRI Working Papers 3, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    14. van der Ploeg, Frederick & Rezai, Armon, 2017. "Cumulative emissions, unburnable fossil fuel, and the optimal carbon tax," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 216-222.
    15. repec:voc:wpaper:tech82012 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Waldemar Karpa & Antonio Grginović, 2021. "(Not So) Stranded: The Case of Coal in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-16, December.
    17. Colo, Philippe, 2021. "Cassandra's Curse: A Second Tragedy of the Commons," MPRA Paper 110878, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Halkos, George E. & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2011. "Oil consumption and economic efficiency: A comparative analysis of advanced, developing and emerging economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1354-1362, May.
    19. Jean-Luc Gaffard & Mauro Napoletano, 2012. "Agent-based models and economic policy," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/53r60a8s3ku, Sciences Po.
    20. Audoly, Richard & Vogt-Schilb, Adrien & Guivarch, Céline & Pfeiffer, Alexander, 2018. "Pathways toward zero-carbon electricity required for climate stabilization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 884-901.
    21. Blair Fix, 2019. "The Aggregation Problem: Implications for Ecological and Biophysical Economics," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-15, March.

    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:64:y:2014:i:c:p:168-174. 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.