Energy, Environment and Public Policy: A Guide to the Analysis of Systems - UNEP Regional Seas Reports and Studies No. 95

Through the application of the principles of systems analysis, we will attempt in this booklet to generate a view of the world as one complete system containing many subsystems. The systems approach will demonstrate that economic and environmental problems can be evaluated according to a common measure: the eMergy generated by the system. It will show how to put monetary values on resources, including sunlight, the most abundant of all. Conversely, we will be able to express cash flows in an even more basic form: their solar energy equivalents.