Energy in a Globalised World - Energy and Climate: How to Achieve a Successful Energy Transition - page 2

distribution of relatively inexpensive means of transport on a worldwide
scale has encouraged globalisation of the economy which, in return,
increases energy consumption.
The alternative energies, which have developed more recently, are
still far from being on an equal footing. Nuclear energy is largely
considered throughout the world as presenting a number of risks:
risks of diversion for military purposes, accidents, and waste storage.
The renewable energies, supposed to eliminate these various constraints,
are developing only slowly and their actual ability to replace the current
energies is sometimes questioned.

Current predominance of fossil energies

According to the 2008 issue of the published by

IEA, in 2006, the world supply of primary energy (from oil, natural gas,
coal, nuclear sources and renewable energies) amounted to 11.7 billion
tonne oil equivalent [1].
One tonne oil equivalent (toe) represents the energy obtained through
combustion of 1 t of oil. Even though the increasing electrification of
our economy also brings other units into use, such as the kWh and the
MWh (1MWh

World Energy Outlook

0.086 toe), the widespread use of the toe as an energy
unit shows that oil remains the reference energy.
Primary energy is that available before any conversion, except
for energies which cannot be exploited directly (Figure 1.1). Hydroelec-
tricity and nuclear energy are therefore considered as primary energies.
Electricity produced from nuclear power is assigned an equivalence

¼

Figure 1.1 Sources of primary energy (2006 figures - Source: IEA)