Energy for sustainable development<\/p>\n
Agus P. Sari, Executive director of Pelangi, An environment
\nresearch institute, Based in Jakarta<\/p>\n
Energy is crucial to sustainable development. Providing energy
\nallows people to prosper and be productive. At the same time,
\nutilization of fossil fuels -- coal, oil and gas -- can be
\ndetrimental to sustainable development in the process of
\nextraction, conversion and use.<\/p>\n
This is why energy is at the heart of the negotiations at the
\nfourth preparatory committee meeting (Prepcom IV) for the World
\nSummit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).<\/p>\n
The role of energy in sustainable development has been
\nrecognized since the era leading up to the Rio Earth Summit in
\n1992. But at the Bali Prepcom, this strategic role was
\nreaffirmed -- the meeting was devoted to energy for sustainable
\ndevelopment.<\/p>\n
During the period between 1987 and 1997, global energy
\nproduction increased by 17 percent. By 1997, about 9.7 billion
\ntons of oil was produced globally.<\/p>\n
But reserves and production of oil, the most versatile form of
\nprimary energy, are centralized only in some regions of the
\nworld. Access to energy services, as part of the results, is not
\nevenly distributed all over the world.<\/p>\n
It is appalling to learn that as many as 2 billion people --
\none-third of the world's population -- still lack affordable
\naccess to electricity today, according to the World Energy
\nAssessment report.<\/p>\n
These people still use fire wood, animal dung and inefficient
\ncook stoves, and their days end when night falls due to the lack
\nof lighting. Exacerbated by poorly ventilated huts, these forms
\nof energy cause detrimental effects to their health due to indoor
\nair pollution. Since women are the ones that spend most their
\ntime in the kitchen, they are at the highest risk.<\/p>\n
Even more unacceptable is that we need only 120 million tons
\nof oil equivalent of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to provide
\nfull access to their daily cooking needs, amounting to only about
\n1 percent of the total energy consumption globally, 4 percent of
\nthe total energy consumption in the United States, or 12 percent
\nof the energy used in U.S. road transportation. On a per capita
\nbasis, each American consumes about 10 times the energy of the
\naverage South Asian.<\/p>\n
The development of energy systems could bring negative as well
\nas positive impacts on sustainability.<\/p>\n
Impacts on the society as well as on the environment in the
\nprocess of extraction, conversion and use have been reported
\nthroughout the world. In some countries, extraction of oil and
\ngas has invited problems with local and indigenous communities.
\nIncidences such as Shell Oil in Nigeria and the Chad-Cameroon gas
\npipeline are exemplary of this issue.<\/p>\n
Terry Lynn Karl finds, with few exceptions, a very weak
\ncorrelation -- if not counter-correlation -- between oil resource
\nabundance and economic development.<\/p>\n
She finds in her book titled "The Paradox of Plenty" that
\ncountries such as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Brunei, being "oil-
\nrich" countries, do not show strong economic growth, especially
\ncompared with "oil-poor" countries such as Singapore and
\nThailand.<\/p>\n
Along the same lines, Michael Moore found, in his tenure as a
\nvisiting scholar at the World Bank, that there was actually a
\nstrong counter-correlation between oil and democracy.<\/p>\n
Transparency International puts Nigeria, a country where oil
\nconstitutes 40 percent of its national income, 70 percent of its
\ngovernment revenue, and 95 percent of exports, as the most
\ncorrupt government in the world.<\/p>\n
The use of fossil fuels also has detrimental effects on the
\nenvironment. The transportation sector causes the largest air
\npollution problems, followed by power plants -- notably coal-
\npowered power plants.<\/p>\n
Acid rain due to sulfur emissions has caused major damage to
\nsome North American and European forests. There are cases of dead
\nlakes due to acidification.<\/p>\n
Also, there is a problem with global warming. Energy and the
\nindustrial sector contribute about 75 percent of all carbon
\ndioxide emissions -- about 22 million tons -- due to the massive
\nuse of fossil fuels, which constitutes about three-quarters of
\nthe greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.<\/p>\n
From 285 parts per million (ppm), concentration of greenhouse
\ngases in the atmosphere, there has been an increase to about 380
\nppm today, trapping the radiation of the sun and keeping it
\nwithin the Earth's atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The adverse effect of global warming is devastating. Water
\nscarcity, food shortages, prolonged droughts and massive floods,
\nloss of arable land, health problems and more frequent "natural"
\ndisasters will occur as a result -- some of them already have.<\/p>\n
Achieving a safe level of greenhouse gas concentrations that
\nprevent dangerous interference with the climate system require
\nmassive development and deployment of carbon-free energy sources.<\/p>\n
In 1997, about 1.3 billion tons of oil was produced throughout
\nthe world utilizing renewable sources. If hydropower were
\nexcluded, the figure would be about 1.1 billion tons of oil
\nequivalent.<\/p>\n
As Greenpeace reports, wind energy is the most rapidly-growing
\nalternative energy producer, averaging about a 50 percent
\nincrease per year recently. Pilot projects to develop bio-fuels
\n-- bio-diesel and bio-kerosene - have shown great potential for
\naffordable and much cleaner alternatives to liquid fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
But clearly, the increase of local and global pollution due to
\nthe massive provision of energy for the poorest 2 billion people
\nshould be prioritized. For them, affordability comes first,
\ncleanliness comes second. An increase of 1 percent of fossil
\nfuel use to provide them with decent access to energy services
\ncan easily be offset by energy efficiency measures in the
\nindustrialized countries.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/energy-for-sustainable-development-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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