Energy and Environmental Policy and Electric Utilities’ Choice under Uncertain Global Warming

Masaki Takahashi

Aug-92

Masaki Takahashi, August 1992

The paper reviews and discusses uncertainty about global warming science, impact on society. It also discusses what assumptions have been made and how appropriate the assumptions in scenarios have been for estimating global warming and its impacts. It then reviews energy consumption and supply trends and past environmental issues and countermeasures, and discusses energy and environmental policy including: regulations, taxes and emission rights, as well as how global environmental policy should be formed and how technology transfer helps developing countries. Finally it discusses issues in energy resource and technologies for fossil fuels, nuclear energy, renewable energy, efficiency improvements and suggest the choice for utility industries under uncertain global warming. It concludes that global warming is not an issue of high priority and CO2 emission rate is not an appropriate index to form energy and environmental policy, and that an appropriate population and economic growth rate, energy consumption rate reduction should be sought through efficiency improvement and technology transfer.