Differing cultures of energy security: An international comparison of public perceptions

This study reviews how energy-users perceive the importance of energy security dimensions. It asks: how does the sense of energy security vary with culture? Its primary source of data is a summary of survey distributed in eight languages to almost 2500 respondents in Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, India, Kazakhstan, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and the United States. It utilizes an “energy literacy test” in Denmark as a secondary data tool. The survey results are used to test nine hypotheses about national, economic, political, professional, and epistemic cultures. The study concludes by affirming the complexity of energy security as a cultural topic; by emphasizing how answers among respondents tended to converge more than diverge; and by calling for further research.