Thermodynamics and the Economic Process : An Application to World Energy Resources and Climate Change

This paper develops further a model of the economic process, first set out as part of a paper by the author published in 2007, concerning the application of thermodynamic laws to economics. The paper sets out relationships between economic output and capital, labour, resource and waste stocks, with specific reference to energy, and is backed up by analysis of data of world energy resources and climate change. The paper concludes that both energy resource availability and climate change will have significant, limiting effects on the forward path of economic development