Energy & Ethics: Justice and the Global Energy Challenge(Energy, Climate and the Environment)

Concepts from justice and ethics can significantly inform energy decision-makers. Benjamin K. Sovacool introduces readers to the injustices and insecurities inherent in the global energy system before presenting an energy justice conceptual framework consisting of availability, affordability, due process, good governance, prudence, intergenerational equity, and responsibility. He showcases the application of these principles to eight real-world case studies involving national energy planning in Denmark, the Warm Front program in the United Kingdom, the World Bank's Inspection Panel, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Sao Tome e Principe's Natural Resource Fund, solar energy in Bangladesh, climate change adaptation efforts in least developed countries, and the Yasuni-ITT Initiative in Ecuador.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 2. Availability and Danish Energy Policy 3. Affordability and Fuel Poverty in England 4. Due Process and the World Bank's Inspection Panel 5. Information and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative 6. Prudence and Sao Tome e Principe's Oil Revenue Management Law 7. Intergenerational Equity and Solar Energy in Bangladesh 8. Intragenerational Equity and Climate Change Adaptation 9. Responsibility and Ecuador's Yasuni-ITT Initiative 10. Conclusion - Conceptualizing Energy Justice

About the Author :
Dr. Benjamin K. Sovacool is Visiting Associate Professor at Vermont Law School, USA, where he manages the Energy Security and Justice Program at their Institute for Energy & the Environment. He works as a researcher and consultant on issues pertaining to renewable electricity generators and distributed generation, the politics of large-scale energy infrastructure, designing public policy to improve energy security and access to electricity, and building adaptive capacity to the consequences of climate change. He is the author, editor, co-author, or co-editor of 13 books on energy security and climate change issues in addition to hundreds of peer-reviewed academic studies.

Review :
'In Energy & Ethics, Benjamin K. Sovacool demonstrates through important case studies and original research the essential link between access to resources and individual and community opportunity and freedom. As we move into the twenty-first century, where population, environmental quality, and resource pressures will imprint themselves centrally on every aspect of society, this book provides a thought-proviking guide to the challenges ahead.' - Daniel M. Kammen, University of California, Berkeley, USA 'It's often said that energy is the lifeblood of modern societies. It follows that if we want a society that is just and fair, then energy decisions must support these goals. Benjamin K. Sovacool's perceptive and innovative new book examines energy decisionmaking in this context. He makes a powerful case for energy justice.' - James Gustave Speth, Yale University and Vermont Law School, USA 'Benjamin K. Sovacool, one of the smartest energy analysts anywhere, clearly explains that energy policy has as much to do with justice and ethics as it does economics and technology. Energy and Ethics fills a big hole in the policy debate moving us closer to a consensus beyond political stalemate. Essential reading.' - David W. Orr, Oberlin College, USA 'When we think of energy, we conjure up images of infrastructure such as coal mines, well fields, pipelines, power and plants. We worry about supply, demand, security, risk, public acceptance, costs, and even war. What we rarely think about is the twinned topics of ethics and justice. With this new book, Benjamin K. Sovacool has changed all that. Energy studies will never be the same. And that's a good thing. In these times of increasing competition for the energy resources that await discovery beneath mountains, prairies, deserts, forests, permafrost, oceans, and Arctic ice, what could be more important than justice?' - Martin J. Pasqualetti, Arizona State University, USA