Energy Security and the Social Use of Energy

Abstract

When energy and natural resources are becoming scarce on the global scale, attention should be focused on how energy is being used to meet a variety of social needs and priorities not just the political priority of growth New energy accounting is needed to distinguish the energy used for operation, maintenance, and development of capital goods and infrastructure from that used to pursue economic growth This would serve both developed and developing economies to make informed decisions on their own socioeconomic priorities under the constraints of growing resource scarcity and divergent demographic trends Without such informed policy making, Western societies will be hardly able to respond to national security requirements, and to contribute to the international quest for peace and security