Current and future energy situation in the world

2004/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ingurumena

The International Energy Agency has published the World Energy Report 2004. The report envisages the global energy situation by 2030. The report is very extensive, with 600 pages, and makes a very comprehensive analysis.

The situation in general will be quite optimistic: The Earth has enough energy sources to meet the needs of the coming decades and oil will not run out. But there are also dark differences, as oil and gas prices will increase and their supply may be affected by political problems and, more seriously, demand will increase. This increases the dependence of some local suppliers.

Global energy demand would increase by 59% by 2030. And 85% of what will rise will be energy sources that emit carbon compounds into the atmosphere: coal, oil and natural gas.

Energy demand in developing countries is expected to grow to a greater extent, especially in China and India. In these municipalities coal will be the main source of energy.

Of course, governments can take steps to reduce energy consumption and boost the development of new technology. And the announcements of the report have been made without regard to these measures. However, the adoption of these measures clarifies in the report that the situation would change radically and that for this it is necessary to develop new technologies.