World energy models—a survey and critique

Considerable intellectual effort has been devoted to the development of energy supply-demand models, some of which have been influential in energy policy making. In this paper the author presents a comparative survey of nine world energy models and assesses how far differences in conclusions depend on differences in assumptions and methodologies. The main purpose is to consider how valuable energy modelling exercises are. It is argued that many studies are misconceived in that they fail to pay sufficient attention to economic factors and to the needs of the policy maker.