IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v36y2008i4p1430-1435.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the role of energy consumption in human development through the use of saturation phenomena

Author

Listed:
  • Marti­nez, Daniel M.
  • Ebenhack, Ben W.

Abstract

A correlation is presented between the UN human development index and per capita energy consumption for 120 nations. A strong relationship between index values and energy consumption is observed for the majority of the world. Additionally, a distinct secondary trend emerges from the dataset, representing heavy energy exporters such as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and some Former Soviet Union nations, among others. The preliminary observation is made that these two trends closely resemble saturation curves, exhibited by a variety of natural phenomena. For the primary trend, three regions are isolated: a steep rise in human development relative to energy consumption for energy-poor nations; a moderate rise for transitioning nations; and essentially no rise in human development for energy-advantaged nations, consuming large amounts of modern energy. These correlations suggest that tremendous gains in human development are possible for the world's poorest, with small incremental access to energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Marti­nez, Daniel M. & Ebenhack, Ben W., 2008. "Understanding the role of energy consumption in human development through the use of saturation phenomena," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1430-1435, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:36:y:2008:i:4:p:1430-1435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(07)00557-5
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Jose Goldemberg, 2001. "Energy and Human Well Being," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-2001-02, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    2. Dias, Rubens A. & Mattos, Cristiano R. & P. Balestieri, Jose A., 2006. "The limits of human development and the use of energy and natural resources," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1026-1031, June.
    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. Ouedraogo, Nadia S., 2013. "Energy consumption and human development: Evidence from a panel cointegration and error correction model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 28-41.
    2. Nogueira Vilanova, Mateus Ricardo & Perrella Balestieri, José Antônio, 2014. "Energy and hydraulic efficiency in conventional water supply systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 701-714.
    3. Brand-Correa, Lina I. & Steinberger, Julia K., 2017. "A Framework for Decoupling Human Need Satisfaction From Energy Use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 43-52.
    4. Susan Spierre Clark & Thomas P. Seager & Evan Selinger, 2015. "A development-based approach to global climate policy," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 1-10, March.
    5. Ilyas, Rubina & Hussain, Khadim & Ullah, Mehreen Zaid & Xue, Jianhong, 2022. "Distributional impact of phasing out residential electricity subsidies on household welfare," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    6. Sideri Lefkeli & Evangelos Manolas & Konstantinos Ioannou & Georgios Tsantopoulos, 2018. "Socio-Cultural Impact of Energy Saving: Studying the Behaviour of Elementary School Students in Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-14, March.
    7. Andre Assis de Salles & Ana Beatriz Mendes Campanati, 2019. "The Relevance of Crude Oil Prices on Natural Gas Pricing Expectations: A Dynamic Model Based Empirical Study," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 9(5), pages 322-330.
    8. Banerjee, Rajabrata & Mishra, Vinod & Maruta, Admasu Asfaw, 2021. "Energy poverty, health and education outcomes: Evidence from the developing world," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    9. Amirmohsen Behjat & Mohammad Hassan Tarazkar, 2021. "Investigating the factors affecting the ecological well-being performance in Iran from 1994 to 2014," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 13871-13889, September.
    10. Nogueira Vilanova, Mateus Ricardo & Perrella Balestieri, José Antônio, 2015. "Exploring the water-energy nexus in Brazil: The electricity use for water supply," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 415-432.
    11. Qin Li & Hongmin Chen, 2021. "The Relationship between Human Well-Being and Carbon Emissions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-12, January.
    12. Tran, Nguyen Van & Tran, Quyet Van & Do, Linh Thi Thuy & Dinh, Linh Hong & Do, Ha Thi Thu, 2019. "Trade off between environment, energy consumption and human development: Do levels of economic development matter?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 483-493.
    13. Hiranmoy Roy & Rajaiah Jayaraj & Anshunan Gupta, 2015. "Energy consumption and human development: global perspective," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(1), pages 111-131.
    14. Jiang, Zhujun & Ouyang, Xiaoling & Huang, Guangxiao, 2015. "The distributional impacts of removing energy subsidies in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 111-122.
    15. Bilal Ahmed Memon & Rabia Tahir, 2021. "Examining Network Structures and Dynamics of World Energy Companies in Stock Markets: A Complex Network Approach," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(4), pages 329-344.
    16. Ntona, Eirini & Arabatzis, Garyfallos & Kyriakopoulos, Grigorios L., 2015. "Energy saving: Views and attitudes of students in secondary education," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-15.
    17. Busayo Victor Osuntuyi & Hooi Hooi Lean, 2023. "Environmental degradation, economic growth, and energy consumption: The role of education," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 1166-1177, April.
    18. Udin Udin, 2020. "Renewable Energy and Human Resource Development: Challenges and Opportunities in Indonesia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(2), pages 233-237.
    19. Ismet Ugursal, V., 2014. "Energy consumption, associated questions and some answers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 783-792.
    20. Mohammad Said El Halimi & Alberto Zanelli & Francesca Soavi & Tarik Chafik, 2023. "Building towards Supercapacitors with Safer Electrolytes and Carbon Electrodes from Natural Resources," World, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-19, July.

    More about this item

    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:4:p:1430-1435. 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.