Central Europe: Ethical Overlaps of Environmental and Economic Interests in Coming Years

Despite the size and thanks to the rich brown coal reserves, the Czech Republic is one of the leading energy producers in Europe, and the 7th biggest exporter of electricity in the world. However, following the climate change mitigation, the novel energy policy that enhances the reduction of coal mi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science and engineering ethics 2018-12, Vol.24 (6), p.1801-1807
Main Author: Caha, Zdeněk
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bioethics
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Climate Change
Climate change mitigation
Coal
Coal mines
Coal mining
Conservation of Energy Resources - economics
Costs and Cost Analysis
Czech Republic
Economic analysis
Economics
Education
Electric power generation
Electricity
Electricity pricing
Energy costs
Energy industry
Energy policy
Engineering
Engineering - economics
Engineering - ethics
Environmental ethics
Ethics
Europe
Government
Humans
Income
Lignite
Medicine/Public Health
Modernization
Morals
Nuclear energy
Nuclear power plants
Nuclear Power Plants - economics
Nuclear Power Plants - ethics
Opinion
Philosophy
Philosophy of Science
Politics
Power Plants - economics
Power Plants - ethics
Public Policy - economics
Reduction
Renewable energy
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Summary:Despite the size and thanks to the rich brown coal reserves, the Czech Republic is one of the leading energy producers in Europe, and the 7th biggest exporter of electricity in the world. However, following the climate change mitigation, the novel energy policy that enhances the reduction of coal mining is about to be implemented. A preliminary material flow analysis of the Czech energy sector was carried out. The data obtained confirmed that this government act would result in a dramatic reduction of revenues from electricity sales. Conversely, increased costs would be necessary in order to modernize nuclear power plants and promote the production of renewable energy. In addition, the economic analysis revealed that the act might be prejudicial to economic relations in Central and Western-European countries as some of them are significantly dependent on the electricity imported from the Czech Republic. Disputes between engineers and politicians were highlighted. The aforementioned interrelations were subsequently analyzed and a conclusion was made stating that global interests should have the highest moral priority.
ISSN:1353-3452
1471-5546
DOI:10.1007/s11948-017-9982-3