| Laying the groundwork for a sustainable energy future
We Canadians tend to take energy for granted. We have plenty of it in various forms, from coal to oil, to natural gas and hydroelectricity. We don't think about it much because it's always there, powering our cars, our homes and our places of business. It's because energy is so plentiful, and relatively cheap, that we use so much of it – which is causing problems like global warming.
Yet while countries like Canada and the U.S. are practically glowing with energy, one third of the world's population – two billion people – do not even have access to electricity. Surprisingly, the most widespread fuel-using technology today is not nuclear power, fuel cells or even the internal combustion engine. It's the lowly cooking fire. Reliance on crude forms of energy like this locks people in many parts of the world, especially women, into cycles of hardship because of the tremendous amount of time involved in simply maintaining a fire and because of the air pollution it generates.
A sustainable energy future will need to address these problems. The developed world cannot continue to use so much energy if it comes from fossil fuels, for the threat of climate change is simply too great. Sadly, the threat is greatest to people in the poorest countries – people who still meet most of their energy needs from a cooking fire. This imbalance is simply unjust. But how do we reconcile it?
Released with little fanfare in September, the World Energy Assessment seeks to do just that. An initiative of the United Nations and the World Energy Council, it is perhaps the most comprehensive report on energy policy ever published. The report looks at world energy-use patterns, poverty, health and the environment, and offers several energy-future scenarios.
Not surprisingly, many of these scenarios, including a "business as usual" projection, do not meet the criteria for a sustainable energy future – one that reduces pollution, global warming and poverty. For example, although they will last at least through the century, relying on oil and gas reserves is not an option if we want to slow global warming and reduce pollution-related deaths and health care costs. Right now, pollution from energy use causes about three million premature deaths worldwide every year – five to six per cent of global mortality.
One significant way to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels is to become more energy efficient. According to the report, overall global energy efficiency is just 37 per cent. That means that 63 per cent of all the energy being used by humans – largely through burning fossil fuels – is being wasted. Most of that waste is in the form of unused heat and pollution. Yet if industrialized countries pursue policies that encourage energy conservation, they could cost-effectively increase energy efficiency by 25 to 35 per cent within the next 20 years. Developing nations could make even bigger gains.
Another step is to start making the transition to renewable energy supplies such as wind and solar. These are not going to replace all of our energy needs any time soon, but it is important to start making the switch today to reduce greater costs in the future. Many fossil fuel industry groups claim that renewables are simply too expensive to be viable. But according to two engineers from Stanford University, writing in a recent edition of the journal Science, if you consider the health and environmental costs associated with energy production, wind energy is now cheaper than coal.
Unfortunately, as the World Energy Assessment points out, "Today the ability of renewables to compete in the marketplace is hampered by pervasive (and often perverse) subsidies to fossil energy." It concludes, "Unless wise decisions are made in the next few decades, many opportunities to change our energy course may be lost." Government and industry leaders need to pay attention to these recommendations because we can no longer afford to take energy for granted.
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