Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1.4
Chinese CO
2
emissions per unit of electricity generation. (Copyright OECD/IEA.
Figure 1.9 in OECD/IEA
2013
)
leadership is thus critical to continuing and strengthening measures to reduce emis-
sions in the future; equally the lack of leadership in solving the annual forest de-
struction and burning cycle in Asia can undermine even the modest progress made
elsewhere.
Renewable Energy
With the dominance of the energy sector and its reliance on
fossil fuels, no strategy to combat global warming can succeed without a substan-
tial shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. The renewables sector
is showing high growth rates, but major technological challenges (particularly in
materials and engineering) remain to either reduce the costs of alternative technolo-
gies, or invent new approaches to resources not yet capable of being effectively
harnessed (marine energy in particular). Human resources to contribute and lead
such efforts are required.
Natural Resources
Natural resource consumption is already estimated to be 50 %
above the sustainable level (Global Footprint Network
2012
) with projections of
increased demand continuing with rising population and consumption of goods
(Fig.
1.5
). By 2050, annual consumption could triple to 140 billion tons of miner-
als, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per year unless economic growth can be decou-
pled from natural resource consumption (UNEP
2011
). Such levels are many times
what is sustainable, underlining the scale of the challenges to reduce consumption
through more efficient usage, recycling, substitution of high environmental impact
materials with those of lower impact and other measures. As the UNEP report says,
achieving a decoupling of resource consumption from GDP “
demands an urgent
rethink of the links between resource use and economic prosperity, buttressed by a
massive investment in technological, financial and social innovation
”.
The source of this increasing demand is shown in Fig.
1.6
where the growth
in the proportion of resources consumed by China and Asia stands out. Africa's
proportion of the global total appears stable, but looking at resource extraction and
