Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Indonesia. Hence, it is a major source of energy in many developing countries, but
not necessarily in industrialized countries.
The world's present energy system—heavily dependent on exhaustible fossil en-
ergy source—is not sustainable. In other words, it cannot last indefinitely.
The concept of sustainable development was proposed in the 1987 Brundtland
Report, prepared at the request of the United Nations, in the following terms:
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs. It contains within it two key concepts:
- the concept of “needs,” in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which
overriding priority should be given; and
- the idea that technology and social organization can limit the environment's ability to
meet present and future needs.
Looking at sustainable development in terms of energy can help to clarify the pre-
ceding definition, because the nature of the energy system offers a response to the
thorny question of how many “future generations” we should consider.
As we have shown, fossil fuels are exhaustible, and, at constant production and
consumption rates, the presently known reserves of oil will last around 41 years;
natural gas will last for 64 years; and coal will last for 155 years. Owing to the
dominance of fossil fuels in the world's energy supply and their expected limited
lifetimes, they cannot be considered the world's main source of energy for more
than one or two generations—thus providing a metric to the aim of “not comprom-
ising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Only renewable
energy sources (and maybe nuclear energy if the other problems associated with its
use could be solved) could do it.
From this perspective one should consider “sustainable development” as a “de-
velopment that lasts.”
