Issue Description:
Critical issues regarding global energy.
Critical aspects of global energy use and their global implications:
The critical issues surrounding global energy consumption are vast and generally relate to fossil fuels, solar power, electric power, and wind power. These issues vary in size, scale, by country, by demographics, by population, by a state’s foreign and domestic policies, and they cannot be fully measured. The primary large/ macro issues relate to an increase in demand for fossil fuels, renewable/ alternative energy, environmental constraints, cost, and storage/ the cost/ the disposal of new energy sources such as batteries, etc.
The primary detailed / micro issues relating to fossil fuel revolve around the durability of reserves and supply, pollution resulting from greenhouse gasses and climate change, the cost of extraction, the geopolitical dependability of supply, the unintended consequences of extraction (fracking, earthquakes, methane hydrate (natural gas)), and several other unknowable issues.
The primary detailed/ micro issues relating to solar power include transportation (e.g. how does the international community move energy from the source to the consumer), currently there is only a 20% dependability of solar power, Dependence (US) is only at 20%, Investment/ tax credits, etc. depend on legislation, there are currently no efficient, affordable, transportable batteries or panels, solar energy requires a large landscape (land) for panels and storage, there is a great deal of concern over pollution resulting from improper storage, etc., and China is at the forefront of solar energy creation due to their supply of rare earth materials.
The primary detailed/ micro issues relating to wind power relate to the need for vast quantities of land/ space, there are environmental concerns, the transportation of energy from the source to the consumer, the cost efficiency compared to that of oil, the dependability of wind power is only at 20%, the storage, transportation, and pollution resulting from batteries, and the fact that legislation is not dependable.
The primary detailed/ micro issues revolving around nuclear power involve nuclear waste and safe disposal, terror risks (technical and human, natural disasters, cheating, political legislation, and the fact that costs to maintain and dispose of nuclear power are going up.
What is being done by the international community to address the issues surrounding global energy use?
Currently, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC) are leading the way in solving the global energy crisis. In addition to the aforementioned, the United Nations (UN) is forging a pathway to energy sustainability through its forum and through global treaties and initiatives.
In addition, the following can be accomplished to further enhance global cooperation, and continued energy sustainability efforts:
A global commitment from all nations to eliminate fossil fuels, and promote alternative new, and renewable sources of energy must be imagined and created. The initiative should be written and agreed upon by all nations throughout the globe. This initiative should not only strongly encourage the positive, realistic, and achievable goal to reinvent the way, the process, the distribution of, and the storage of renewable/ sustainable energies, it should also be international law. Further, all nations must abide by this law in order to ensure that the future of humankind can reach endless longevity.
Sources:
In class Notes
Global Issues, Jackson, Robert M. pp. 127-135
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