Download Dominion High School Model United Nations Conference III – 2011

Dominion High School Model United Nations
Conference III – 2011
Addressing Rising Global Energy Demand
By: Reza Saadvandi and Carolyn De Roster
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Background
The development of a sustainable, long-term solution to meeting the world’s energy
needs is currently a definitive issue. Energy is directly linked with the key global challenges that
the world faces - poverty alleviation, climate change, and global, environmental and food
security.
Global energy use has risen nearly 70 percent since 1971 and is poised to continue its
steady increase over the next several decades. Energy demand is fuelled by economic expansion
and development especially in upcoming, industrializing nations such as Brazil, Russia, and India.
In the developed world, energy use per capita is already extremely high, and continues to
increase slowly. By contrast, the most rapid growth in energy demand is now occurring in
developing countries. Although energy use is still low compared with that in more affluent
nations, the accelerated growth of energy use is of great concern to the international
community. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), energy demand has been rising
at a steady rate in recent years, and will continue on at a steady rate in the future.
Rising energy use correlates with an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from fossil
fuels, and therefore an anticipated increase in global warming. Fossil fuels supply roughly 90
percent of the world’s commercial energy, and energy-related emissions account for more than
80 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere each year. By 2010, IEA
projects that global energy consumption and CO2 emissions will have risen by almost 50
percent from 1993 levels. This poses an imminent threat to not only global health, but also
global supply of natural resources. Through past United Nations (UN) collaboration, however,
these projections have begun to change.
Even as energy use continues to rise globally, greater efficiency and a shift to less energy
intensive activities have meant that energy consumption has grown at a slower rate than the
world economy. And because of cleaner fuels, even fossil fuels, the rise in carbon dioxide
emissions is less than the growth in energy consumption. Regardless, climate change remains a
major challenge for the international community. Major climate change threatens to undermine
any efforts to achieve sustainable development. Generally, the nations most vulnerable to these
effects have contributed least to the problem, remain in need of more energy for
industrialization, but are often the least able to afford investments to adapt more efficient uses
of energy. There is a clear disconnect between the international need for energy, and the
international need for public health.
A recent opportunity for improving both environmental quality and human health is to
reduce air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Energyrelated environmental pollution figures prominently as a contributor to a number of diseases,
including acute respiratory infections, chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and
cancer. Urban and industrial air pollution remains a widespread and serious environmental
problem worldwide. In recent years the potential health impacts resulting from climate change
have become of greater concern. However, tremendous health benefits and economic savings
may be gained if the links among energy, air pollution, and climate change are dealt with in a
coordinated way. However, developing nations require more energy so that they may increase
their autonomous production, and in effect increase the stability of their nation. Currently, the
international community is exploring ways as to how a balance may be created between the
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increased energy demand of developing nations, the continuing demand of developed nation,
and the environmental impacts of fossil fuel emissions.
http://greengridpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/world_energy_use_graphic.jpg
http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4dc925f949e2ae05620d0000-900/but-energy-demand-is-rising.jpg
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Energy Demand and Poverty Alleviation
Current energy systems are failing to meet the needs of the world’s most poor. Around
the world, 1.6 billion people – about a quarter of the human race - do not have access to
electricity.
For regions such as Africa, the provision of electricity is by far the greatest infrastructure
challenge. Compared to other regions of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the lowest
rates of energy access, capacity per capita and electricity consumption per year. But Africa is not
the only region affected by the continuously rising global demand for energy. Most developing
countries still require immense investment requirements to build additional factories; increase
generation capacity; extend electricity grids in urban areas; expand mini-grids in medium-sized
settlements; and add decentralized installations, which energy services to remote and rural
areas. Given the prominent role that foreign banks play in developing countries, scaling back on
financing will likely decrease energy financing as well. According to the World Bank, private
capital flows in the energy sector are also expected to decline. Lower financing for energy will
affect nations with the highest concentrations of poverty and developing nations the most.
In contrast, the economies of the Asia-Pacific region continue to have robust economic
growth and high energy demand. This, in turn, will have a deleterious effect on climate change.
Widening access to energy services will continue to be a major challenge to the region along
with addressing climate change. In Asia and the Pacific, a low carbon development path would
effectively meet the region’s development needs while addressing the challenges of climate
change and local pollution.
Even developed nations are likely to be affected by rising energy demand. As more
nations grapple for a limited about of natural resources, the price of these resources will
increase. Nations around the world will be forced to pay more for fuel that they desperately
need. In this respect, another challenge as a result of rising energy demand is the general
distribution of natural resources and their pricing. There is a seemingly unlimited demand for
energy, but a scarce amount of the needed resources, namely fossil fuels.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5138/5535461099_21bb6296d0.jpg
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Energy Demand and Climate Change
Newly developing nations plan to advance themselves by industrialization.
Industrialization requires high amounts of energy. The plants and factories involved in
industrialization often use forms of energy that emit CO2 and other harmful greenhouse gases.
A paradox occurs when the nations needing to industrialize are not able to do so because the
international community prohibits greenhouse gas emissions. Yet there are already developed
nations that are able to remain self-sufficient by using less energy. The differences in energy use
and emissions around the world have recently brought up debate on cap-and-trade.
Cap-and-trade is the concept that countries and/or companies can trade carbon credits.
Carbon credits are a number that represent greenhouse gas emissions. As some countries run
nearly exclusively on clean, renewable energy, they have a high amount of carbon credits
because they emit few greenhouse gases. These countries are then able to transfer their carbon
credits to industrializing countries that demand a great amount of energy. As a result, a sort of
artificial economy is created. The economy redistributes the greenhouse gas emissions. It allows
industrializing nations to continue their production, while keeping greenhouse gas emissions
low in limiting how much may be emitted on a global scale.
An aid to cap-and-trade is the creation of more renewable energies such as wind, solar,
hydroelectric, and geothermal. If such renewable energies are exploited, more countries will
have carbon credits to trade with industrializing nations. As more carbon credits are traded,
industrializing nations may accelerate their economic growth rate, eliminating poverty and
becoming stable and self-sufficient in the long run.
Energy demands continue to rise every year as nations industrialize further. Since rising
energy demands come primarily from industrializing nations, production in industrial factories
emits high amounts of pollution. The pollution and emissions spread not only in the
atmosphere, but also in the water system. Atmospherically, the emissions clog the ozone layer
trapping heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. The rising heat causes crops to die, as they cannot
withstand the suddenly higher temperatures. Dying crops destroys agricultural economies and
raises the price of food, as the resource becomes scarcer. In terms of water pollution, emission
mix with the water, becoming a serious pollutant. Polluted water is unfit for drinking and
irrigation. Continuous pollution of the global water supply through emissions with eventually
raise the price of food and further destroy economies. The same demand for energy that
developing nations require to become self-sufficient is also the same energy that destroys the
climate. Climate change and destruction causes even deeper problems with agriculture that will
set back the global economy. The challenge will be to find a balance between energy fit for
industrialization and efficient, clean energy that can meet the global demand.
http://www.ourclimate.net/images/world_energy_consumption_by_type.gif
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Energy Demand and F.E.W. Nexus
F.E.W. is an acronym that stands for food, energy, and water. Food, energy and water are
three of the most needed, yet most scarce resources in the world. Furthermore, they are all
inter-connected. Energy and water are need to produce food, while food and water provide for
human survival, and humans need to produce food, which requires energy and water, creating a
cycle of high demand coupled with great scarcity. Currently, 2.5 billion people do not have
access to sanitation and 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water; 1 billion people
suffer from hunger and 2 billion suffer from malnutrition; and 2.5 billion people do not have
access to modern forms of energy.
The demand for energy, food and water is set to rise in the coming years. Current trends
predict that energy needs will potentially be up 50% by 2030, the need for food will rise 70% by
2050 and there will be a 40% increase in the gap between water supply and demand. Assuming
that the trends will not change in the future, the world will be put into disarray over resources
as fundamental as food, energy, and water.
Crucial in solving the problem is energy demand. Energy demand specific to agriculture
creates a bridge between the nexus of food, energy, and water. If efficient, expense-saving
energy techniques can be created, nations with the highest concentrations of poverty may be
able to become more self-sufficient. Not only will such advances in clean, efficient energy help
control pollution, but they will also help alleviate poverty in underdeveloped nations.
http://climatecommercial.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/wef-water-food-energy-graphic.jpg
The chart above show how economics, energy, and food production are closely linked to
each other. Each element of F.E.W. comes with its own problems. Without food security, there
will be a food crisis and social unrest; without energy security, there will be chronic shortages,
stagnation in economic growth, an energy crisis, and social unrest; without water security, a
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water crisis that slows economic growth and will cause further social unrest. When area of
security fails, however, all areas of security will fail. This is because water is directly involved in
food and energy production, and energy is involved in food production and water desalination
and distribution, and food production is inherently the driving force behind human survival.
Furthermore, with any failure, there will be complete social unrest causing geopolitical conflict
and greater economic disparity. However, the need for energy is pressured by growing
environmental concerns. Tensions arise when developing nations require more energy, but its
usage is restricted due to these environmental issues. Additionally, population growth causes a
demand for more food therefore increasing energy demand, which is already restricted. The
layering of restrictions on already scarce resources is causing a serious dichotomy in society and
economics. Energy demand, the central idea of F.E.W, is crucial in remedying the global tensions
regarding scarce resources.
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