Lignite — A Domestic Resource in the GDR’s Energy Policy: Macroeconomic Problems

Abstract

My topic is the macroeconomic problems of energy policy. The technical and technical-economic alternatives available for providing primary energy sources and for converting them into utilisable energy, as well as the structure of energy consumption, represent basic information for economic consideration. Macroeconomic research has to answer the question: To what extent are the possibilities (or variants) for energy supply economically feasible? Again, how must resources be planned, ordered and redistributed to obtain high economic growth with low investment? In the GDR, performing such tasks is the role of central state planning. According to the five-year plan of the GDR (1981–5) national income (the main indicator of economic growth) is to be increased by 4.5 per cent per annum, but the consumption of primary energy sources will increase by less than 1 per cent per annum. It follows from this that the energy-intensity of national income is to be reduced by about 4 per cent a year. Here, energy consumption is calculated in physical units (joules or calories). In 1980–82, the targets for reducing the energy intensity of national income were exactly met. More than this, consumption of primary energy sources was reduced absolutely, even though national income increased by 4.5 per cent per annum.