Energy, Environment and Rationality

Peter James

Energy & Environment, 1991, vol. 2, issue 3, 217-234

Abstract: Energy-environment interactions are subject to great uncertainty. When uncertainty is great the perceptions of decision-makers are influenced by their underlying ‘world views’. Three such world views can be identified in recent debates -that of egalitarian greens individualistic entrepreneurs and establishment hierarchies. Each has a different stance on the stability of nature, the best means by which to realise environmental ends and the forms of society which are most compatible with environmental well-being. Energy-environmental policies will only be successful if they take these differences into account. Such policies must meet four basic criteria: the accommodation of alternative viewpoints, cost-effectiveness, maximisation of flexibility and recognition of the value of non-energy benefits. In practice this means a greater reliance on energy efficiency and natural gas and a short-medium downgrading or nuclear power and coal, but with measures to retain them as options for the longer term. Sweden is already following such policies and, as a consequence, will be placed in the next century to either pioneer a new pattern of nuclear development or make a transition to a largely renewable based energy regime.

Date: 1991
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0958305X9100200301 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:engenv:v:2:y:1991:i:3:p:217-234

DOI: 10.1177/0958305X9100200301

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Energy & Environment
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().