Long-Term Policy Assessment of Energy/Environment Systems: A Conceptual and Methodological Framework

Abstract

Late in 1974, a research study on Management of Regional Energy/ Environment Systems was initiated by the Ecology/Environment project at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). The study was structured to take advantage of IIASA’s international and multidisciplinary character. In addition, during 1975 and early 1976, it served as a rich source of case studies for what has been the dominant aim of IIASA’s Ecology project since its inception — the development of a coherent science of ecological management that could be applied to similar problems throughout the world. The research was founded upon the following four key presumptions: Energy-use limitations could result from unacceptable costs and consequences, not from physical resource exhaustion; Strong relationships exist between energy systems and economic development. Energy and its environmental corollaries will exert increasing influence on technological, economic, and environmental dicision-making bodies throughout the world; Many significant social and environmental consequences of energy systems arise from embedding the system in a specific region or human environment;