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CHAPTER 9: PROTECTING ENVIRONMENTAL WELFARE: COMPARISON OF EMERGETIC AND ECONOMIC VALUATION
Citation:
Cai, T, T. W. Olsen, AND D E. Campbell. CHAPTER 9: PROTECTING ENVIRONMENTAL WELFARE: COMPARISON OF EMERGETIC AND ECONOMIC VALUATION. Emergy Synthesis 3: Theory and Applications of the Emergy Methodology: Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Emergy Analysis Research Conference, Gainsville, FL, January 29 - 31, 2004. Brown, et al (ed.), Center for Environmental Policy, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL, 133-142, (2005).
Description:
To protect human and environmental welfare, the US EPA aims to base environmental regulations and policies on sound scientific and, where possible, economic analyses. The EPA has accordingly conducted analysis of the economic impact of regulations for three decades but has yet to develop an effective methodology for the integrated assessment of impacts on the larger system as a whole, including its social and environmental as well as economic processes. Assessments that account for the integrated nature of these processes are crucial to avoid the oversights that can lead to a less-than-optimal management or protection of our environmental resources due to inadequate or erroneous information, poor decisions, or maladapted institutional resources. To address this need, we are investigating the linkages of socioeconomic processes, which are driven by preference formation and satisfaction, with the environmental processes of available energy exchange and transformation that provide our basic life support. We report here on an initial step in this effort, in which we compare emergetic and economic valuations in terms of their goals, underlying conceptions of value, methods of implementation, and specific measures or outcomes. After highlighting major similarities and differences, we explore possible relations between values derived from these two approaches along with the prospects for their integration.