{"id":5818,"date":"2018-11-05T16:24:46","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T16:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shapeenergy.eu\/?p=5818"},"modified":"2018-11-30T12:12:16","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T12:12:16","slug":"blog-energy-policies-outside-the-silos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shapeenergy.eu\/index.php\/blog-energy-policies-outside-the-silos\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog: Energy Policies Outside the Silos"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ernst Ulrich von Weizs\u00e4cker, Club of Rome<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article is one of the Forewords from the SHAPE ENERGY open access book recently published by Palgrave Macmillan\u00a0\u00a0\u2018Advancing Energy Policy: lessons on the integration of Social Sciences and Humanities\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/i>.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Current worldwide trends are not sustainable. The Club of Rome\u2019s warnings published in the book Limits to Growth in 1972<\/a> are still valid. We have, nevertheless, come a long way since 1972: we know much more about the climate and energy use and how what we do as societies affects the planet, for good and for bad.<\/p>\n

At times governments have been able to come together and effectively address threats to our survival, such as ozone-depleting gases. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change\u2019s Paris Agreement<\/a> is important, but far from sufficient, and now needs action to deliver upon the commitments made.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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We have also seen that energy use and economic prosperity can and have been decoupled, which is encouraging. Still, current worldwide trends are not sustainable. Our societies still keep focusing on economic growth as the primary indicator for prosperity and while we reduce energy intensity, global energy use is still growing with potentially catastrophic consequences.<\/p>\n

We seem to be in a philosophical crisis where our societies fail to address the problems that threaten their survival. The world needs a \u2018new enlightenment\u2019, one that is not based solely on doctrine but instead addresses a balance between humans and nature, as well as a balance between markets and the state and the short- versus long-term. To do this, we need to leave behind working in \u2018silos\u2019 in favour of a more systemic approach, which will
\nrequire us to rethink the organisation of science and education.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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