Energy-related environmental issues in a global context

Conference · Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:6081422

Fri, R W

Few subjects have received more attention in the past few years than the tension between energy and the environment. The fundamental issue behind this tension is how to provide required energy series in a sustainable way. This issue stretches beyond a global agenda to an intergenerational one. An agenda this expansive cannot be addressed by business-as-usual means, but requires us to think more fundamentally about the conditions that must exist in the future to deal successfully with this agenda, and how we can bring these conditions about. First, it's self-evident that we should invest heavily in research and development. The New Earth 21 proposal from Japan is a good example of this sort of program, as is Energy Technology R D: What Could Make A Difference , by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Next, we must invest as heavily in science as technology. In particular, science should focus on reducing uncertainty about risks, for uncertainty can make us unnecessarily risk averse. Only greater scientific understanding can tell us if this risk aversion is misplaced. The final two conditions are institutional in nature. One is that we must find a way to build demand for both energy services and environmental protection. This is a special challenge in developing countries, because most of the energy growth and environmental problems of the future will be there. Lastly, global interdependence means sharing scare resources. The developed and developing worlds depend on one another, both economically and environmentally. We must face the issue of transferring financial and technology resources from the wealthy to the poor, even at some expense to the former. Technology, science, demand creation and resource transfers are large and general ideas. But if we don't attend to these large issues, the future tensions between basic needs for energy and the environment will become unbearable.

• Research Organization: Atlantic Council of the United States, Washington, DC (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: FG01-89IE10763
• OSTI ID: 6081422
• Report Number(s): CONF-9011186-1; ON: DE91009538
• Resource Relation: Conference: US/Japan energy policy dialogue, Washington, DC (USA), 8 Nov 1990
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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