Shared Energy Sources
The International Energy Outlook for 2007 (IEO2007) predicts that fossil fuels will continue to be the main energy source which includes coal and liquids (oil and other petroleum products). However, the share of fossil fuels from 34% in 2004 will decline to only 30% by 2030 of total world energy demand because rising oil prices will spur the search for alternative energy sources. Oil will still be the main energy source because of the lack of alternatives of oil use in the transportation sector (cars, trucks, and other motor vehicles). There are now trials for hybrid cars (using both gas and electricity) but hybrids still are a long way from totally replacing gas-powered engines. Other hybrids are vehicles that use liquified natural gas in combination with gasoline. Some prototypes use solar panels for power.
Natural gas is preferred as an energy source in both the industrial sector and in the power generation industry because it is less carbon-intensive (cleaner) and more fuel efficient. Russia and some Middle East countries have the lowest prices of natural gas in the world because they have an abundant supply that is readily accessible.
Natural Gas facility
Ironically, the U.S., China and India are the 3 countries with the most abundant supply of coal. Their ample coal supplies, coupled with continuously rising gas prices in the world market, make them heavy users of coal. Consequently, they are the world’s biggest polluters of the environment and the largest in carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The U.S. is alone among the industrialized nations that refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol that aims to reduce carbon emissions back to certain lower levels. The ostensible reason is that reducing carbon emissions will impinge on the U.S. economy. However, both China and India to their credit, acknowledged their heavy carbon usages and have adopted plans to reduce carbon emissions while maintaining their growth rates. What they both want is a certain leeway in growing economically although this will harm their environments. Some environmentalist people have argued that “green living” and economic growth are not mutually exclusive but can even be complementary.
Both coal and natural gas usages are expected to increase their share in the electric power generation industry. Due to higher fossil fuel prices, environmental considerations and energy security concerns, recent years saw higher use of both nuclear power and hydroelectric power to produce electricity for additional commercial uses such as schools, hospitals, subdivisions, shopping malls and office buildings. In both the short-term and the long-term, energy consumption will be determined by households and businesses making individual spending decisions. This is called the demand side of the economy while the production of good and services is termed as the supply side.
Most countries now have tried to make changes to their economic activities to become more carbon-neutral. It simply means that the amount of resources they consume does not contribute a great deal to the worldwide carbon emissions. Some even proposed the idea of a market place for “trading carbon emissions”, a sort of a global tax system that monitors a country’s total energy use. The site below gives the relationship between energy use and the amount of carbon emissions until year 2025: