International Congress on Energy Security (04.04.2012 - 05.04.2012)

Topics

Energy policy
Do we have to change our habits?
It is generally predicted that the world energy demand will further increase to reach 45% by 2030. It should be noted however that the economic recession due to the financial crisis has led the energy demand to progress slower than expected. 
Fossil fuels will represent 80% of the world demand of primary energies in 2030. Oil remains the dominating fuel. The world primary oil demand outside biofuels is increasing at an average annual rate of 1%, from 85 million barrels per day in 2007 to an expected 106 million barrels per day in 2030. The share of oil in world energy consumption has however fallen from 34% to 30%, which means that the projections regarding black gold have been reviewed to a lower level.
Global urban energy consumption which, according to some analysts, reached 7,900 Million tons of oil equivalent in 2006, which represents the two thirds of total current energy consumption and will reach the three fourths of that proportion by 2030.

Nuclear energy 
The Atom: a clean and quality energy? 
Nuclear industry is subject to contention although its advantages, including the power it generates, the competitive cost of produced electricity and the capacity to generate power without greenhouse gas rejection, are recognized worldwide. Nevertheless, radioactive waste management remains the main drawback of the nuclear industry.
439 reactors scattered in about thirty countries, including 15 OECD member countries are in operation worldwide. 42 reactors are under development and 5 are in the process of being dismantled.
Europe which produces 35% of its electricity from nuclear plants has therefore prevented carbon dioxide emissions of a quantity equal to that produced by the European automobile fleet (about 200 million vehicles).

Climate change 
Living to the pace of our changing planet 
In view of its observed impact on natural, human and economic systems, climate change poses scientific, technological and political challenges. Burning fossil fuels is the first human activity that is to be blamed for greenhouse gas emissions.
Energy industry rejections account for three quarters of human emissions of carbon dioxide. With about 20% of the world population, industrialized countries represent 60% of annual CO2 emissions. Topping the list is the United States which, alone, generates one quarter of total atmospheric CO2. It is followed by China, Russia, India and Japan. According to Sir Nicolas Stern’s report, climate change will have serious consequences on growth and development with a loss of 5-20% of global GDP each year. To remedy the situation, rich countries have decided to earmark 100 billion dollars a year, by 2020, to help developing countries reduce their GHG emissions and adapt to climate change. The needs of developing countries were estimated at over $ 150 billion per year. 30 billion dollars a year are already planned for the period 2010-2012. Europe, which advocated a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 eventually reconsidered its position and set a 20% greenhouse gas emission reduction target.

Renewable energies 
For a viable… and sustainable planet 
Today, renewable energies represent 13.5% of recorded total world energy consumption and 18% of world power consumption. The bulk of this production (10.6%) is ensured by the biomass and waste.
Renewable power is mainly generated from water (90%) the rest being very marginal: biomass (5.5%), geothermal (1.5%), wind (0.5%) and solar (0.05%).
Solar energy currently represents less than 1% of European power consumption but could increase to reach between 4% and 6% by 2020. Within three years, Germany has multplied the number of its renewable energy facilities by 5, USA by 2.5 and France by 2.
Wind energy development is aimed at supplying 10% of European electricity by 2020.

Source: GreenOrbis International

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Von: 04.04.2012
Bis: 05.04.2012
Ort: Genf, Schweiz
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