Review of Future Energy Supply and Targets for Climate Change: The Idea of Ecosystem Services - Implementing Environmental and Resource Management - page 119

12 Review of Future Energy Supply and Targets
for Climate Change: The Idea of Ecosystem
Services
Ernest Fongwa 1 , Vincent Onyango 2 and Albrecht Gnauck 1
1 Department of Ecosystems and Environmental Informatics, Brandenburg
University of Technology (BTU), Cottbus, Germany
2 Department of Environmental Planning, Brandenburg University of Technology
(BTU), Cottbus, Germany
12.1 Introduction
Climate change is considered as one of the biggest challenges for decades to come
(BP 2008; CDIAC 2008; Reddy and Hodges 2000; IEA 2007). This is unless sig-
nificant investments are diverted towards development of natural capital that regu-
lates the environment (World Bank 2008). Although energy supply from renew-
able energy sources and renewable technologies are growing rapidly, their
capacity will still not be enough to significantly offset fossil fuel demand (BP
2008; CDIAC 2008; Grunwald 2008; IEA 2007). This means energy supply from
non-renewable sources will still contribute to the release of large emissions of
GHGs that cause climate change (EPI 2010; ESRL 2010). Even though there are
policies and strategies on emission control to fight climate change, it is argued
here that these efforts should not only focus on emission reductions, but also on
mitigation measures. An analysis of future energy projections (see World Bank
2010; EIA 2008; ESRL 2010; IEA 2007) reveals a need to explore other avenues
for mitigating emissions from this energy trend.
This paper argues that to achieve targets for climate change, more focus and fi-
nancial investment should be diverted to the development and maintenance of eco-
system services; alongside the policy targets for renewable energy, emissions con-
trol and reductions, and demand and supply side management programs for
efficient energy use. The concept of ecosystem services has received significant
attention since the appearance of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA
2005a). This is because of the agreement reached that ecosystem services are criti-
cal to sustainable development and that they ought to be preserved, if not en-
hanced (Slootweg and Beukering 2008; MEA 2005b).
Furthermore, it was suggested that tools for promoting sustainable develop-
ment, such as impact assessments, appraisals and planning tools, should integrate
and consider the value of ecosystem services (Slootweg and Beukering 2008).