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Energy is central to our economies, our lifestyles, and our
health. It powers industrial production, transportation, and increasingly,
agricultural production. It provides services such as heating, refrigeration,
and lighting, which raise the quality of life and provide tangible health
benefits such as unspoiled food and relief from the stresses of heat or cold.
Energy production and consumption have serious negative impacts on our local,
regional and global environment. For example, almost all the CO2 emissions we
generate are attributable to the energy sector, and this is having a serious
impact on the planet’s climate. Using energy more efficiently offers the best
way to reduce these environmental problems. Purchasing renewable energy also
reduces pollution.
Global energy use has climbed steadily over the years as
industrial economies have expanded; this rapid rise is expected to continue
over the next several decades. It has been estimated a 20-fold growth over the
past century and is expected to increase by 2% annually until 2020. This means
a doubling of energy consumption by 2035 relative to 1998 and a tripling by
2055.
The greatest increase is from transport, where 95% of
energy comes from petrol. Energy consumption in this sector is expected to
increase at a rate of 1.5% a year in developed countries and 3.6% in developing
countries, reflecting rapid economic expansion, high population
growth, and the substitution of fossil fuels for traditional biomass fuels.
The most direct impact of higher fossil fuel use could be
an increase in air pollution levels, especially in urban areas. Greater coal
use and a rapidly expanding fleet of cars and trucks worldwide are the two most
serious threats to air quality as fossil fuel consumption rises. Energy and
Transport policies are at the centre of environment concerns, jointly
contributing with more than 90% to Europe’s CO2 emissions balance and causing
other negative environmental impacts. Monitoring energy and transport markets
reveals that, while some progress is being made, major problems remain and some
developments give rise to major concerns. The more critical trends can be
envisaged in Europe’s increasing energy import dependency and its implications
for energy security, the return of growth in European fossil fuel consumption
and the corresponding increase in CO2 emissions and finally the continuous
growth of road and aviation transport demand, which is creating traffic
congestion of a size and a frequency that will further escalate its current
negative impacts on European industry’s competitiveness.
Looking beyond immediate impacts on air quality, rising
fossil fuel use will produce higher greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the
threat of global warming. Without a major global effort to curtail carbon
dioxide emissions, they are expected to double from pre-industrial levels
before 2100. In response, the Earth's average surface temperature is expected
to warm by 1.0° C to 3.5° C over the coming century a more rapid change in
climate than has occurred for the last 10,000 years. Although health impacts
are uncertain, most are likely to be negative, according to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Several Land Use issues deal with the relationship between energy use
and air quality; in particular:
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