Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2006 to 4% in 2030. Hydropower output will slightly increase, though its share of
electricity production in the global market will drop to 14%. Therefore the pro-
jected outlook demonstrates that, at least until 2030, the capacity of fossil fuel will
come first in the merit order of world energy supply.
It has been stated that energy management programs that focus on demand and
supply (i.e. measures to improve energy efficiency) are the cheapest and fastest
ways to curb energy related emissions in the near future (Stringer 2002). That is
management schemes for energy saving both on the demand and supply sides.
This has given an opportunity for the development of nano-technologies for the
production of energy materials with high efficiency and possible reduction of en-
ergy losses. They have also given rise to energy saving equipments, which to-
gether with other energy management efforts on both demand and supply sides are
used to solve energy challenges. These efforts can make a greater contribution to
the energy challenges over longer time periods (Ibid.). Whilst these management
and technological approaches could make major contributions to control the en-
ergy demand and supply, as well as the related emission saving, it is far from clear
In the future one could expect efforts towards emission reductions, which could
come from several sources such as improved efficiency in industry, building and
transport; switching to nuclear power (but problems of handling nuclear waste and
material which need special facilities) and renewable energy supply, and world
wide spread deployment of emission capture and storage. To achieve emission
savings, several approaches could be applied such as quick and vigorous policy
actions by all countries and development of technological advances that entail low
cost. Therefore, to contribute to the achievement of national and global goals to
reduce emissions and fight climate change, this paper proposes that the focus
needs to be put on natural mitigation measures that are potentially viable and more
sustainable such as the development and maintenance of ecosystem services. In
addition to the current focus on emission policies, consideration should be given
to the development of ecosystem services and those activities that promote them.
This is because without these services (ecosystem services) of the natural ecosys-
tems acting as regulators of the environment, then it is possible without preserving
them to reach scenarios with extreme high temperatures. This has been justified
from the synthesis of desertification in the MEA (2005a). For example greenhouse
gas emissions in the atmosphere are sequestrated by forest, green plants, soil, wa-
ter bodies and others, which are the services of the natural ecosystems (Kasting
1998). That is without these services, it will be possible that the rate of ozone level
depletion causing climate change would increased drastically due to the rapid rate
of increased in those gases that are justified from the emission scenarios (Wall
2008; IEA 2008). This is because the available capacity of ecosystem services
cannot capture the huge amount of emissions. Therefore ecosystem services need
to be developed and maintained in order to reduce the potentials of climate change
from gases through sequestration services from the natural ecosystems. This
means efforts and investments on climate change should be diverted on their de-
velopment, while still considering the other measures.
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