The Essential Energy Transition - Energy and Climate: How to Achieve a Successful Energy Transition - page 36

Threats to be removed

To cope with the numerous threats facing us (progressive depletion of
resources, unequal access to energy, tensions over supplies and damage to
the environment), the necessary solutions must guarantee:

- Long-term availability of the energy required for development of the
planet, without excluding the Third World countries.
- Security of supplies, to protect the importing countries against
sudden crises.
- Availability of themeans designed to avoid the catastrophic effects of
a major climate change.

These threats must be considered in a broader context. The risk of
depletion does not concern energy alone, but all natural resources (water,
food resources, rawmaterials, etc.). The notion of scarcity, which plays a
major role in the economy, requires new forms of management and
governance [23].
Pollution and global warming could make the planet unfit to support
life. Pollution of the natural environment coupled with excessive use of
pesticides and dumping of waste worsens the situation, especially with
regard to access to water.
Overexploitation of water resources for irrigation or consumption in
towns depletes the water tables, dries out rivers and causes numerous
lakes to disappear [97]. Global warming also jeopardises water resources
in many regions.
The concept of an ecological footprint formalises the problem of access
to the Earth s resources. The geological footprint represents the area of the

Earth needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes
and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste. It is greater
than 5 ha per capita in the richest countries and less than 1 ha in the
poorest. In 2003, it was 5.6 ha in France and 9.6 ha in the USA. The
ecological footprint of the world population is rising steadily, and it is
estimated that it has changed from slightly over 4 billion ha in 1963, to
nearly 14 billion ha in 2003. In contrast, the maximum footprint per
capita that can be supported in terms of natural resources is consistently
decreasing, changing from 2.9 ha in 1970 to 1.8 ha in 2003. If every
inhabitant on the planet was to consume as much as a current inhabitant
of the USA, the equivalent of 5.3 planets would be necessary to support
humanity, clearly demonstrating that this option is not viable [9].