In 2011, Germany announced to the United Nations that the county planned to be 100 percent sustainable electric energy dependent by 2050. This paper sets out to examine sustainable electric energy practices in German and whether or not other other countries such as the United States of America would be able to implement German’s plan and be successful.
What is sustainable energy? Why do we need sustainable energy?
Sustainable energy, also know as renewable energy, is energy that can be replaced. It can be made from the sun, the wind, plants and more. Unfortunately, sustainable energy is like foot note in the global energy plan, which is largely made of up of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels, are power sources like, oil, gas, coal, these all come from the earth and are in limited supply (ie. can run out). Also the extraction of such fuels can have devastating effects on the workers extracting the fuel and the environment the fuel is found in. It is because of the limited supply and ecologically damaging side effects of fossil fuels is why there is a large interest in sustainable energy, especially sustainable electric energy (Selin, Rafferty, & Pallardy, 2008).
Europe’s energy usage and Environmental footprint. [E.N. failed goal?]
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol is an agreement made through the United Nations within their climate change convention ("Kyoto 1st Commitment Period (2008–12)," 2016). Countries participating in the Kyoto Protocol pledged to cut 5 percent of their greenhouse
The UNFCCC was established in 1994 to address climate change at an international level. Since then, the parties to the convention (including the EU) meet annually in Conferences of the Parties. The Kyoto Protocol (1997) set an obligation for developed countries to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, through setting national targets, using 1990 as a base level. The UK has been one of only a few countries to comply with the international obligation and has reduced GHG emissions since 1990.
Energy is an important part of life producing the power of movement, heat, and production of electricity in many different ways. Therefore, choosing the correct source of energy is important for the environment and humans. Renewable energy that produces electricity never runs out, causing a lower environmental impact. Solar, Biomass, Wind, Geothermal, and Hydropower energy should be used globally to produce electricity. On the other hand, producing electricity from nonrenewable energy sources can be very harmful to humans and the environment. Humans can easily be dependent on it, which may not be the best option when it comes to finance, efficiency, sustainability and more. Approximately 52% of the US electricity comes from polluting sources like natural gas, oil, nuclear, and hydropower that have a lot of disadvantages effecting the environment in a negative way.
The UNFCCC is working with the various governments around the world to stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere to keep the planet from warming more than 2ºC above pre-industrial temperatures (Watts, 2015). The most noted of the work is the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings that began with COP1 in Berlin back in 1995. The COP3 adopted the Kyoto Protocol, even though it wasn’t fully accepted by all member nations. The COP21 was an effort to legally bind members to their submitted plans of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), defining what level of greenhouse gas production each nation would commit to not exceeding from 2025-2030. Prior to the INDCs, a bleak outlook was forecast in 2009-2010 of global temperature rising between 4-5ºC. That figure was restated by the UNFCCC prior to the COP21 in Paris, to below 3ºC, due to the commitments of the INDCs (Watts, 2015).
The Kyoto Protocol is a binding international agreement, which began in Kyoto, Japan in 1997. As of June 2013, there were a total of 192 parties participating in the Kyoto Protocol, Canada was no longer one of them. Canada was one of the first to sign the agreement, in 1998; more than 4 years later, Canada formally approved the Kyoto Accord, in 2002 ("CBC.ca - Timeline: Canada and Kyoto"). This meant Canada would have to decrease its emissions, by 6% in comparison to 1990 levels (461 Mt), by the year 2012. Despite some efforts, Canada failed to meet these requirements and in fact increased total emissions by roughly 24% by the year 2008. Canada formally withdrew from the Kyoto Accord in 2011, avoiding
In 1997, The Kyoto Protocol was adopted to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (EPA, n.d.). In spite of the international treaty, half of participating nations, including Canada failed to reducing its Co2 emissions (Clark, D., 2012, November 26).
Addressing this issue, there has been a few things done in result of eliminating this problem. One solution being The Kyoto Protocol, "...was the first agreement between nations to mandate country-by-country reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions ( 'Extract ', 2011)." During this process, countries agreed to cut their yearly emissions of greenhouse gases. "Some countries and regions, including the European Union, were on track by 2011 to meet or
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty, which enforces the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The treaty does not account for ozone depleting substances since they are covered under the Montreal Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and took effect on 16 February 2005.
The world right now is facing a major disaster if our habits don’t change. Fossil fuels dominate our energy demand and at our current rate this will remain true for quite some time. The World Energy outlook claims that by 2030 84% of our energy demands will be fulfilled by fossil fuels (Shafiee et al, 181). It is believed that we possess the reserves to meet our demands until 2030 (Shafiee et al, 181) but the cost will increase as time goes on. Fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource, meaning that once we run out of what’s currently available, we cannot replenish it. Our future energy needs are heavily dependent on a non-renewable and quickly depleting energy source.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This amounts to an average of five per cent over the five-year period 2008-2012.
Renewable energy is on the increase, however the rate in which this increase is taking place is too slow. This leads to our country not being very sustainable. Before we begin to talk about the roadmap, it is important that we must understand the definition of sustainability. Sustainability is conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources . In terms of energy this can be achieved by increasing our use of renewable energy. Renewable energy is when energy is sourced from natural and alternative energy such as wind and solar .
Following the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol was meant to put a timescale on the project of reducing emissions all the while naming more specific greenhouse gases to be reduced and giving examples of the means to do so. This means that not only will action be required by the countries bound to the protocol, but now they would have a list of specific greenhouse gases to focus upon and also have a list of things that they could do to reduce their emissions. The Kyoto protocol regulates six different kinds of greenhouse gas. These six greenhouse gases are as follows: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) (Kyoto Protocol). The Kyoto Protocol regulates these emissions differently for each individual country. Some countries are required to lower their emissions by as much as eight percent below 1990 levels while others merely have to freeze their emissions at that level. Some countries that emit very little
“The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the premise that (a)
The term, “non-renewable energy,” is at its most basic form, means that the sources of energy will eventually one day run out and not replenish itself. Non-renewable energy comes in many forms. For example: coal, crude oil and natural gas. These sources are categorized as fossil fuels, meaning that they were formed in the past due to natural processes from dead organisms. Non-renewable energy has been proven to be very beneficial to the US, however, many people argue the negatives are not worth the benefits.
It is easy to see the environmental and economic advantages of using the sustainable sources of energy but we must also consider all the disadvantages.
Moreover, the source of 42 % of electricity generated in the country is brown and black coal (International Energy Agency 5). Thus traditional sources of energy are crucial for the normal functioning of its economic. However, the current task of the German government in the energy sector is to make Germany the first country in the world which by 2050 will fully switch to energy derived from environmentally friendly sources. From a technical and economic point of view, this plan is realizable even on the basis of already existing technologies according to experts of the Federal Agency for the Environment.