Quantification of social indicators for the assessment of energy system related effects

Abstract

Within the European Union, the integrated project NEEDS (New Energy Externalities Developments for Sustainability), addresses sustainable energy systems and socio-economic tools and concepts for energy strategies. Its ultimate objective is to evaluate the full costs and benefits of energy policies and future energy systems, both at the level of individual countries and for the expanded European Union as a whole. For the evaluation of full costs and benefits, different efforts have to be made. For example a distinction between direct and external costs and the evaluation of entire energy chains. While purchasers pay the direct costs of energy systems monetarily, the indirect costs cannot easily be expressed in monetary terms. By using the specification “external costs”, we refer to the ExternE project, which defines external costs as “…an externality, which arises when the social or economic activities of one group of persons have an impact on another group and when that impact is not fully accounted, or compensated for, by the first group.” This description of external costs shows that the concept is broadly applicable. External costs of energy systems can affect economic, ecological or social impacts. They can be credited to such diverse issues as CO² emissions, qualitative risk perception or number of newly created job opportunities. Within this wide range of external costs this report addresses the social impact of energy systems. Therefore this report provides insight into the establishment and measurement of social indicators for the assessment of energy systems. The emphasis will be placed on the measurement of the social indicators and the analysis of results. The social indicators within the NEEDS project were developed on the basis of literature research, surveys and a participative procedure involving multiple stakeholders’ opinions. By using this multiple step procedure 26 indicators were developed. In a further step these 26 indicators had to be measured. As one of the purposes of NEEDS is to provide input for future energy policies, the indicators were measured for the year 2050. The measurement of social indicators was predominantly carried out via expert phone interviews. Scientific experts were contacted and asked to provide judgments on social indicators to assess different energy systems. The expert interviews were conducted on the basis of a questionnaire, which was sent to the respondents in advance and covered a total of 14 item batteries each pertaining to different indicators and one open ended question focusing citizens perception of renewable and fossil fuels today and in the future. The expert survey was carried out in four sample countries: France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. These countries were selected since each country is characterised by a specific energy resource and supply situation. The indicators were not only measured within the four selected countries but also for 16 sample technologies Energy system descriptions were provided which informed the interviewee about the main characteristics of each technology. This report provides an overview of the expert telephone interview results for each indicator, emphasizing a) technologies that deviate from the mean evaluations b) differences in evaluations of indicators between experts from the four different countries. These topics are covered: • Development of social indicators • Measurement of social indicators used within the NEEDS project • Empirical results of the research • Conclusion – Summary of the most important results