Global Energy Dilemmas

by Mike Bradshaw

Overview

Today’s global energy system faces two major challenges: how to secure the supply of reliable and affordable energy; and how to rapidly transform to a low-carbon, efficient and environmentally harmless energy supply. In this rigorous and illuminating book, Michael Bradshaw explores the key aspects of the current global energy dilemma and examines how it is playing out across the major regions and countries of the world.

The book begins by charting the development of the current global energy system - exploring its key characteristics with a focus upon energy security and the relationship between energy, economic development and climate change. The next four chapters offer in-depth analyses of four distinct global energy dilemmas in different parts of the world: the challenge of sustaining affluence and decarbonising energy services in the high-energy economies of the developed world; the legacies of the centrally planned economy and the consequences of liberalisation in the post-socialist world; growing energy demand and emissions growth associated with the emerging regions; and finally, the quest to provide universal access to modern energy services in the developing world in a manner that is both economically and environmentally sustainable.

Identifying the governance structures and policy options available to tackle the global energy dilemma, the book concludes that only an integrated approach - sensitive to regional issues - can reconcile the interests and needs of those facing differing energy challenges across the world today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745672144
Publisher:	Polity Press
Publication date:	11/20/2013
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Michael Bradshaw is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Leicester. In 2014 he will take up the post of Professor of Global Energy at Warwick Business School.

Table of Contents

Figures, Tables, and Boxes vi

Acronyms viii

Preface ix

1 Introduction 1

2 The Global Energy Dilemmas Nexus 23

3 Sustaining Affluence: Energy Dilemmas in High-Energy Societies 50

4 Legacies and Liberalization: Energy Dilemmas in the

Post-Socialist States 84

5 Fueling Growth: Energy Dilemmas in the Emerging Economies 120

6 Energizing Development: Energy Dilemmas in the

Developing World 149

7 Conclusions 181

Appendix: Country Classification 194

Bibliography 197

Index 216

Editorial Reviews

'The best single-volume guide to the problems of energy that I have come across. It is comprehensive, thoroughly researched, up-to-date, and, most important, provides readers with a coherent framework for making smart decisions about energy policy.'
Michael Klare, Hampshire College

"For too long geographers have neglected the study of energy. I, therefore, applaud Michael Bradshaw's timely, wide-ranging and up-to-date book on the global energy challenge and the highly diverse ways that this is played out in different types of economy across the globe. Drawing on a wide range of literatures, he shows with great clarity that the relationships between energy, economy and the environment are complex and that to understand them geography matters."
Judith Rees, President of the Royal Geographic Society

"From a policy perspective, the book is a gem as it provides cogent grounds for context-specific responses that will likely serve the global commons best."
LSE Review of Books

"A highly readable, accurate, thoughtful and well-organized overview of a complex and urgent issue. How energy is managed in the years ahead may decide the welfare of humankind for generations. Understanding energy and climate change is critical to all sectors of social activity; reading this book provides that understanding."
Richard Matthew, University of California Irvine

"Michael Bradshaw has written a clear, engaging and accessible overview of current global energy dilemmas? Global Energy Dilemmas is a useful introduction, which traces the changing geographies of energy production and consumption from pre-industrialisation to the second decade of the new millenium."
Philip Kirby, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter

"The book is crammed with useful statistics and descriptions of energy issues all across the world. To understand energy in all its complexity, one needs books like this"
Oxford Journal: Journal of Economic Geography

From the Publisher