GEOU5022 Global Energy

Introduction:

Global energy trends and requirements have been changing with rapid pace which concerns all the major league players in the energy field. Energy requirement of every country is different from another as it depends on the number of population and the extent of industrial capacity which a country has. In the contemporary world the energy production and its requirement is directly related to the climate change. There has been a fuss over the types of energy produced and used and its climatic implications on which a number of agreements have been signed by the global agencies of energy comprising of the developed countries and superpowers. The following easy is about the Global Energy Outlook and its implications in which newly formed government in U.S. has taken some steps under the leadership of Donald Trump. The essay illustrates its details in the discussion.

Relevance of Global Energy Outlook within Contemporary Organizations

In the light of global energy outlook, Paris Agreement was signed in November 2016 which is considered to be a milestone achievement in tackling global climate change. Use of non-renewable energy resources such as coal and other fossils have serious degrading impact on the global climate (Ancona et al. 2017). It has been observed by many environmental organizations that mining and use of these sources of energy emit harmful gases in the atmosphere which degrades and pollute the environment resulting in negative global climate change. International Energy Agency has proved to be instrumental in establishing new renewable sources of energy in many countries and aims to change the source of energy from non-renewable to eco-friendly renewable source of energy (Berardi 2017). Establishment of wind and solar energy technologies have reached record levels and participating governments have decided to change the conventional methods to adopt new methods till 2030. There have been reduction on the fuel prices which has led to lower investment and returns in the oil and natural gas business as countries like China and India who were the major importers of fuels have changed their mindset to use renewable sources of energy. The new policies of energy production guided by the COP 21 has turned the tables for energy requirements as all the developed and the developing countries have to comply to the norms of Paris Agreement and the agendas discussed for the COP21 (Cantore et al. 2017). Energy prices vary from time to time making all the countries which are dependent on the floating prices of oil vulnerable in the international market. It has serious implications on the economies of their respective countries as they have to but the oil as per the modified rates. Induction of new technologies of energy production has caught their eye which is much cheaper and efficient in the long run. Countries that lack sufficient funds to install the new technology based energy production mechanisms are funded by the developed countries and international financial organizations (Coady et al. 2017).

In spite of all the efforts made by the global players of energy, the new regime in U.S. headed by Donald Trump has shown clear indications that they have no interest in showing environmental protection methods which were applied by Barack Obama. Trump has ushered that the environmental policies made by Obama should be reviewed and modified. Trump aims to forfeit the Clean Power Plan of Obama as he thinks that this was the scapegoat for his government and targets to repeal the entire rule made on acquiring land for energy generation and cancellation of coal leases which were on federal land (Farfan and Breyer 2017). Trump has ordered the authorities to reconsider the Social Cost of Carbon and wants to undo all the actions of Obama government which were in favor of preparing to counter the global climate change. Trump government is determined to revive all the banned industries of mining and drilling which was in his main propaganda of election. President Trump has supported all of the energy strategies which also include the use of fossil fuels which shows no regard to the climate change and its accords signed by Obama (Green and Newman 2017). Trump has promised to increase jobs in the production sector which is mainly of the energy production done by conventional means. Trump aims to increase the number of drilling sites and mining land which is under federal jurisdiction to make America energy independent. There is a conflict of interest between the previous U.S. governments which was pro-environment protection and now Trump presidency has paid no respect to the previously made climate accords. Since the global energy outlook has changed and many developed and deep pocketed countries have understood the importance of change in energy trends (Liu 2017).

Energy Policy Frameworks

Change in the global energy outlook has brought many energy policy frameworks into limelight which provides the guiding principles of energy production and limitations of gaseous emissions which may harm the climatic conditions of the planet. International Energy Agency has devised many frameworks which is relevant for different countries in context of the energy production and use. It also imposes restrictions on the level of emissions and provides them with an aim to cut down their carbon weightage till an agreed time (Peters et al. 2017). These frameworks have given a new dimension to the environmental policies of the countries to meet a global standard and to reduce the global climatic change. National Energy Policy is one of the policies which are comprised of factors of energy production. All the energy policies made by different countries have their own respective aims of energy production, but the common notion for all the policies if to adhere to the norms of global climate change and pollution reduction. U.S. energy policy is more centered towards production of energy by means of fossil fuels such as coal and has less importance for the use of renewable energy resources (Pillot et al. 2017).Since the advent of new Trump government in U.S. all the accords and norms of climate change have been ignored and more number of drilling and mining sites have been opened. Taking Brazil into discussion which is the tenth largest consumer of energy in the world, it is also a major player in oil and gas production and is the second largest ethanol producer in the world. Keeping its production dynamics in mind it can be said that it is more inclined towards non-renewable energy resources (Snow 2017).

European Union has been a prime advocate of the renewable energy production since past years. It has also taken itself out of the Coal and Steel Community. It has proposed a policy of Energy: For a Changing World which revolves around changing the conventional method of energy production to adoption of new technologies for renewable energy. It has made a policy to increase the share of renewable energy production to 20% of the current energy needs (Sovacool 2017).

Russia had been the biggest energy producer in the world till 1980s due to its rich natural resources and abundance of coal and uranium (Sovacool 2017). It has maintained the position of the largest superpower in the world due to these reasons only. But Russia has acknowledged the need to adopt new means of energy production in light of the global climate change and has signed the Kyoto Protocol showing its support to the Global Energy Outlook.

China has a very different stance in the Global Energy Outlook. It is one of the major economies and this counted to be in the list of largest producer of electronic goods. As a result China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world but at the same time it is also the leading renewable energy producers and users (Liu 2017). China has shifted its energy production mechanism towards renewable energy but the shift will take time.

India is a developing country but is the third largest economy in the world. Its economy is rapidly growing due to which the energy requirement is huge and India finds itself deficient to fulfill its energy requirements. Due to its developing status it has to rely mainly on petroleum products and coal for producing energy and its fossil reserves are also decreasing (van Vuuren et al. 2017). Thus India has made a policy for renewable energy production which will be in favor of a win-win situation.  

Conclusion:

In the light of Global Energy Outlook it can be concluded that, there are many initiatives taken by international organizations to make the world realize about the global climate change and its negative implications. It raises the concern among all the major energy players to change the mode of energy production from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources such as solar and wind energy. Many contemporary organizations have invested in research and development of the new technologies which can make the renewable energy production cheaper and easier so that it can become the future of energy use. It can thus be concluded that despite all the efforts made on the global level countries like U.S. and Brazil who have large industries and huge contribution to the greenhouse gas emissions, have not taken the matter of climate change seriously. These ignorant practices can prove to be fatal for the entire developed world.

References:

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