Originally published in 1984, this book discusses the structure of a multi-sectoral, general equilibrium growth model of the US economy that gives special attention to the energy sectors and presents results from the simulation of this model under varying conditions of energy supply. While the book primarily analyzes the effect of energy supply on economic growth, it also presents a new methodology for approaching this kind of problem, but this same approach can be used to model the effect of changes in the supply of any produced raw material on economic growth.

Energy Global energy demand has more than doubled since 1970. The use of energy is strongly related to almost every conceivable aspect of development: wealth, health, nutrition, water, infrastructure, education and even life expectancy itself are strongly and significantly related to the consumption of energy per capita. Many development indicators are strongly related to per-capita energy consumption. Fossil fuel is the most conventional source of energy but also increases greenhouse gas emissions. The economic development of many countries has come at the cost of the environment. However, it should not be presumed that a reconciliation of the two is not possible. The nexus concept is the interconnection between the resource energy, water, food, land, and climate. Such interconnections enable us to address trade-offs and seek synergies among them. Energy, water, food, land, and climate are essential resources of our natural environment and support our quality of life. Competition between these resources is increasing globally and is exacerbated by climate change. Improving resilience and securing resource availability would require improving resource efficiency. Many policies and programs are announced nationally and internationally for replacing the conventional mode and also emphasizing on conservation of fossil fuels and reuse of exhausted energy, so a gap in implications and outcomes can be broadly traced by comparing the data. This book aims to highlight problems and solutions related to conventional energy utilization, formation, and multitudes of ecological impacts and tools for the conservation of fossil fuels. The book also discusses modern energy services as one of the sustainable development goals and how the pressure on resource energy disturbs the natural flows. The recent advances in alternative energy sources and their possible future growth are discussed and on how conventional energy leads to greenhouse gas formation, which reduces energy use efficiency. The different policies and models operating is also addressed, and the gaps that remained between them. Climate change poses a challenge for renewable energy, and thus it is essential to identify the factors that would reduce the possibility of relying on sustainable energy sources. This book will be of interest to researchers and stakeholders, students, industries, NGOs, and governmental agencies directly or indirectly associated with energy research.

In this volume, eight energy experts address the question of how much energy conservation can contribute to national energy supplies and how it will affect economic growth. The authors differ in their assessment, some taking a pessimistic and others an optimistic view of conservation's ability to mitigate the damping effect of higher energy costs. They assign varying roles to conservation and energy supplies to meet social and economic goals, but agree on the need for more research. The areas of agreement include cost-effective conservation policies which rely heavily on market forces. They differ in their interpretations of historical data and the potential for substitution.

Access to new sources of energy and their efficient conversion to provide useful work have been key drivers of economic growth since the industrial revolution. Western countries now need to transform their energy systems and move away from the single-minded pursuit of economic growth in order to reduce our carbon emissions, and to allow the environmental space for other countries to develop in a more sustainable way. Achieving this requires understanding of the dynamics of economic and industrial change with appreciation of the dependence of economies on ecological systems. Energy and Economic Growth thus examines the links between three issues: history of energy sources, technologies and uses; ecological challenges associated with the current dominant economic growth paradigm; and the future low carbon energy transition to mitigate human-induced climate change. Providing a historical understanding of the relevant connections between physical, social and economic changes, the book enables the reader to better understand the connection between their own energy use and global economic and environmental systems, and to be able to ask the right questions of our political and business leaders. This is a valuable resource for students, scholars and policy makers with an interest in energy, climate change and economic thinking.