IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v12y1987i10p975-992.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Global environmental issues related to energy supply: The environmental case for increased efficiency of energy use

Author

Listed:
  • Holdren, John P.

Abstract

The environmental costs of energy supply have been rising, reinforcing the effect of increased monetary costs in creating incentives for increasing the efficiency with which energy is used. Quantifying these environmental costs is difficult, but it is instructive to try. The estimates presented here for the direct public-health damages of electricity generation with coal and nuclear power show overlapping uncertainties, with no clear basis for preferring either of these energy sources over the other on these grounds. Impacts of energy supply on climate and ecosystems—such as through carbon dioxide accumulation in the atmosphere and acid precipitation—may ultimately do even greater damage to human well-being than the more publicized and more readily quantified air-pollution and accident hazards. Systematic comparison of energy supply with other industrial activities and with agriculture as a cause of regional and global environmental disruptions confirms the widespread impression of energy's key role in large-scale environmental problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Holdren, John P., 1987. "Global environmental issues related to energy supply: The environmental case for increased efficiency of energy use," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 12(10), pages 975-992.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:12:y:1987:i:10:p:975-992
    DOI: 10.1016/0360-5442(87)90053-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0360544287900533
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/0360-5442(87)90053-3?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.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Peter Olabisi Oluseyi & Tobiloba Emmanuel Somefun & Olubayo Moses Babatunde & Tolulope Olusegun Akinbulire & Oluleke O. Babayomi & Samuel A. Isaac & Damilola Elizabeth Babatunde, 2020. "Evaluation of Energy-efficiency in Lighting Systems for Public Buildings," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(6), pages 435-439.
    2. Haralambopoulos, D. & Spilanis, I., 1997. "Identification and assessment of environmental benefits from solar hot water production," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 177-189.
    3. Di Stefano, Julian, 2000. "Energy efficiency and the environment: the potential for energy efficient lighting to save energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions at Melbourne University, Australia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 25(9), pages 823-839.
    4. Ehrlich, Paul R. & Wolff, Gary & Daily, Gretchen C. & Hughes, Jennifer B. & Daily, Scott & Dalton, Michael & Goulder, Lawrence, 1999. "Knowledge and the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 267-284, August.

    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:energy:v:12:y:1987:i:10:p:975-992. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    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.