Questions 315energy taxes (which recognise the environmental cost associated with
the use of fossil fuels) and tradeable permits coupled with capping of
emissions.
Arrangements are needed to ensure that technology is available for all
countries (including developing countries through technology trans-
fer) to develop their energy plans with high efficiency and to deploy
renewable energy sources (for instance, local solar energy or wind
generators) as widely as possible.
With world investment in the energy industry running at around one
million million US dollars per year, there is a great responsibility
on both governments and industry to ensure that energy investments
(including an adequate level of research and development) take long-
term environmental requirements fully into account.These actions require clear policies, commitment and resolve on the
part of governments, industries and individual consumers. Because of
the long life time of large energy infrastructure (e.g. power stations) and
also because of the time required for the changes required to be realised,
there is an urgency about the actions required. As the World Energy
Council point out ‘the real challenge is to communicate the reality that
the switch to alternative forms of supply will take many decades, and
thus the realizationof the need, and commencement of the appropriate
action, must benow’ (their italics).^74
Questions
1 Estimate how much energy you use per year in your home or your apartment.
How much of this comes from fossil fuels? What does it contribute to emissions
of carbon dioxide?
2 Estimate how much energy your car uses per year. What does this contribute
to emissions of carbon dioxide?
3 Look up estimates made at different times over the last thirty years of the size
of world reserves of coal, oil and gas. What do you deduce from the trend of
these estimates?
4 Estimate the annual energy saving for your country as a result of: (1) un-
necessary lights in all homes being switched off; (2) all homes changing all
light bulbs to low energy ones; (3) all homes being maintained 1◦C cooler
during the winter.
5 Find out for your country the fuel sources which contribute to electricity
supply. Suppose a typical home heated by electricity in the winter is converted
to gas heating, what would be the change in annual carbon dioxide emissions?
6 Find out about the cost of heat pumps and building insulation. For a typi-
cal building, compare the costs (capital and running costs) of reducing by
seventy-five per cent the energy required to heat it by installing heat pumps
or by adding to the insulation.