History suggests that as these citizens of the world find more money in their pockets, they will spend much of it—directly or indirectly—on energy. The future will doubtless see its share of economic downturns and periods of slow growth. But over the course of generations, the mission of humanity has been to enrich itself. There is no reason to expect it to fail now at that mission—or give up on it—after so much past success. But such hopes are misplaced. Just as the farmers and laborers of America and Europe did in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the urbanizing middle classes of India, China, Brazil, Nigeria, and so many other countries are buying cars, refrigerators, water heaters, and air conditioners almost as soon as they can afford the gas and electric bills.
They are eating more meat and taking more long trips. No one has the power—let alone the right—to tell them not to. And any bold plan for saving the climate that fails to meet a massive increase in energy demand during this century is very likely to fail.
So how much energy will the world consume as the twenty-first century unfolds? Maybe the most important among them is this one: 18 trillion watts. In , that was roughly the power needed to keep human civilization humming around the clock.
The astounding size of that number is the main reason that meaningful change in the global energy system is grueling. Any new, clean technology must have a power rating with lots of zeros behind it or must be adopted at an explosive rate and preferably both , or it will simply be too little, too late to make much difference to climate change.
The real action will happen in developing countries as incomes, population, and individual energy use all rise simultaneously. Start with incomes. By , fewer than one in nine did , and in that year alone million more people mostly children escaped that precarious existence.
The elimination of desperate destitution is in sight, and it will be one of the signal achievements of human civilization. Lifting people from extreme poverty to stable subsistence actually costs relatively little energy.
The trickle of electricity used by the poor is tiny compared to the gushing streams consumed by the rich. In fact, the International Energy Agency IEA has calculated that extending universal access to electricity, heating and cooking gases, and other modern forms of energy by would increase overall carbon dioxide emissions by less than 1 percent.
That is a cheap price for all the suffering it would prevent and the enormous human potential it would unlock. But few people are content to stop there—they naturally set their sights on a middle-class lifestyle. Already about 3.
The rate of entry into middle class-dom is accelerating, particularly in Asia, and will likely lift total membership to 5 billion by , Kharas forecasts. Economic security for all, beyond basic poverty alleviation, will come at a steep price in energy. Per capita energy consumption today averages just 2. Lifting all of humanity to the current US standard of living by —an average of 9.
In our thought experiment, the year will thus see demand reach a mind-boggling 70 TW. Take every coal-fired generator, nuclear power plant, wind turbine, and solar farm and then multiply it by four. The scale of the challenge should be starting to sink in. The number of people alive swept past 7 billion in , on its way to probably 11 billion by the end of this century, according to the latest forecasts made by the United Nations Commission on Population and Development.
We use energy in several ways: Commercial, Residential, Industrial and Transportation. So, you see, you as an individual contribute to our energy consumption — both positively and negatively.
With the advent of technology, developing countries all over the world consumed energy at an unprecedented rate. We are aptly called the Fossil Fuel Age. We performed tasks using our own power. But with the industrial boom and the invention of machinery, we now rely more on Fossil Fuels to run things. The issue that we face now is that our energy sources are not infinite.
One day, we will run out of oil or they will be so scarce that the available energy will no longer be affordable. The U. The increase in population does not help. Currently, our civilization consumes around But due to the exploding awareness all over the world, several countries are joining the effort to save energy and find other sources such as solar power, wind energy and alternatives to oil.
There is a more serious effort to find an energy source that will not damage our environment and be more easily sustainable and therefore, cheaper. Consolidated energy and emissions statistics with estimates, including COVID impact and structural changes. Need more data? Access to the whole electricity value chain information: production capacities by technology, power generation by technology, trade, prices, consumption per sector and indicators. According to the Ministry of Power, India has reduced its peak power deficit from Indeed, the country's power peak deficit fell from 18 GW in to 0.
The decrease in emissions is reflected in most sectors with the exception of increases in residential, agriculture and public services. In the energy sector, GHG emissions fell by 7. CO2 emissions. Electricity domestic consumption Global power consumption declined for the first time since
0コメント