Ethical Risk and Energy

Abstract

Defining ethical violations as acts or situations excluding individuals from choices, and ethical deterioration as an increase in intensity or number of ethical violations, the ethical risk is defined as the risk of ethical deterioration. Ethical deteriorations and improvements often coexist and share the same causes, and the net ethical impact is often difficult and controversial to assess. In the energy sector, the ethical risk appears to have five key determinants: (i) personal accountability, i.e. our responsibility in decisions and actions; (ii) fairness, i.e. the consequence on the choices of others; (iii) usage, i.e. the impact on the social and natural environment; (iv) addiction, i.e. the dependence that is created as energy is used over time and (v) danger, i.e. how the force of energy sources can be unexpectedly unleashed and what effort is made to mitigate these.