Murray Patterson

What is energy efficiency?: Concepts, indicators and methodological issues

This paper critically reviews the range of energy efficiency indicators that can be used, particularly at the policy level. Traditional thermodynamic indicators of energy efficiency were found to be of limited use, as they give insufficient attention to required end use services. The specific limitations and appropriate uses of physical-thermodynamic, economic-thermodynamic and pure economic indicators of energy efficiency are also considered. The paper concludes with a discussion of the persistent methodological problems and issues which are encountered when attempting to operationalize all of the energy efficiency indicators. These include the role of value judgements in the construction of energy efficiency indicators, the energy quality problem, the boundary problem, the joint production problem and the question of isolating the underlying technical energy efficiency trend from the aggregate indicator.

Ecological production based pricing of biosphere processes

Abstract Ecological pricing theory and method is reviewed, and then applied to the valuation of biosphere processes and services. Ecological pricing values biosphere processes, on the basis of biophysical interdependencies between all parts of the ecosystem, not just those that have direct or obvious value to humans. The application of the ecological pricing method to the biosphere for 1994, indicates that the total value of primary ecological inputs (services) to be nearly

Bridging the divide in urban sustainability: from human exemptionalism to the new ecological paradigm

US 25 trillion. This compares with

Estimation of the quality of energy sources and uses

US 33 trillion obtained in the Costanza et al. (1997) study. Our analysis also indicated a good correspondence between the shadow ecological price and the observed market price for all marketable goods, except fossil fuel which was undervalued by the market.

High-Resolution Modeling of Energy-Services Supply Systems Using deeco: Overview and Application to Policy Development

This paper reviews the main bodies of contemporary urban sustainability theory. From this analysis, two underpinning paradigms of urban sustainability are identified: (1) The ‘Human Exemptionalism Paradigm’ (HEP), which emphasizes the ability of humans to overcome environmental problems—see Urban Sociology, Urban Ecology, Urban Geography, Urban Psychology and Political Economy; and (2) The ‘New Ecological Paradigm’ (NEP), which emphasizes the criticality of ecological limits to human progress—see Urban Metabolism, Energy/Emergy Analysis and Ecological Footprinting. Each of these approaches is critically reviewed, highlighting their main assumptions, theoretical and practical foci. It is argued in the paper that if the related issues of urban sustainability and development are to be progressed, there needs to be: (1) a greater maturation of the NEP approaches, which are ‘relative newcomers’ to the area of urban theory; and (2) greater integration and dialogue between the HEP and NEP approaches to urban sustainability than has hitherto been the case.

From frontier economics to an ecological economics of the oceans and coasts

Abstract In energy analysis and energy planning it is usual for conventional enthalpy based statistics and data to be used. This has led to difficulties, as these statistics and data do not reflect the qualities or grades of the different forms of energy. To help overcome these difficulties, a regression technique has been developed which enables all forms of energy to be converted to common quality equivalents. In particular this should improve the evaluative scope and potential of energy analysis, and in general it should aid the use of physical measurements of energy in energy planning and policy formulation procedures. Uses of the data derived from this technique, the limitations and some possible extensions of this technique are discussed.

Multiple stressor effects on marine infauna: responses of estuarine taxa and functional traits to sedimentation, nutrient and metal loading

Contemporary energy policy problems typically involve issues of (1) technology selection, placement, and scheduling, (2) energy-services demand modification by location and time-of-use, and/or (3) new sourcing options including emerging renewables. The high-resolution energy systems modeling environment deeco (dynamic energy, emissions, and cost optimization) naturally captures interactions between these components. deeco can assist with the search for policy sets which reduce CO2 and/or displace depletable resource use and which take advantage of cost-effective system integration synergies. The network management objective may be treated as an exogenous variable and process performance can depend on the thermodynamic intensive state of the system. Numerical studies indicate that multiple policy interventions cannot be assumed to be independent and that staging can be significant.

Ecological Footprints and interdependencies of New Zealand regions

Ecological economics is a field of enquiry that has had, with a few exceptions, an almost entirely terrestrial focus. Given the fundamental ecological and economic importance of oceanic and coastal ecosystems, and the accelerating deterioration of these ecosystems, we argue that there is an urgent case to redress this imbalance. In so doing, the scope of ecological economics will be extended and compelling insights developed and applied to better understand and govern marine systems. Although we acknowledge that there is no unequivocal or unitary view of what might constitute an ecological economics of the oceans and coasts, we assert that it should consist of at least ‘four cornerstones’: (1) sustainability as the normative goal; (2) an approach that sees the socio-economic system as a sub-system of the global ecological system; (3) a complex systems approach; and (4) transdisciplinarity and methodological pluralism. Using these four cornerstones, we identify a future research agenda for an ecological economics of the oceans and coasts. Specifically, we conclude that ecological economists must work with other disciplines, especially those involved in marine policy and practice, to move from a ‘frontier economics’ (which has dominated marine management) to entrench an ‘ecological economics’ of the oceans and coasts as the dominant paradigm.

Commensuration and theories of value in ecological economics

Sedimentation, nutrients and metal loading to coastal environments are increasing, associated with urbanization and global warming, hence there is a growing need to predict ecological responses to such change. Using a regression technique we predicted how maximum abundance of 20 macrobenthic taxa and 22 functional traits separately and interactively responded to these key stressors. The abundance of most taxa declined in response to sedimentation and metal loading while a unimodal response was often associated with nutrient loading. Optimum abundances for both taxa and traits occurred at relatively low stressor levels, highlighting the vulnerability of estuaries to increasing stressor loads. Individual taxa were more susceptible to stress than traits, suggesting that functional traits may be less sensitive for detecting changes in ecosystem health. Multiplicative effects were more common than additive interactions. The observed sensitivity of most taxa to increasing sedimentation and metal loading and the documented interaction effects between multiple stressors have important implications for understanding and managing the ecological consequences of eutrophication, sedimentation and contaminants on coastal ecosystems.