Growing demands of Energy: Looking out for an Asian integration

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“The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not try to defy them.” - Paul Hawken

Not long ago, policy makers, UN diplomats, and environmental experts met to discuss the future of global energy supply followed by Earth’s sustainable environment. This summit in Rio de Janeiro brought over 172 governments and 100+ environmental experts under one roof to save the future of our planet Earth and bringing a green economy. They deliberately argued methods of production and other means to build and distribute goods within factories and methods of its transportation. With growing harmful emissions from automobiles, the summit discussed on initiating innovative means in transportation. Also, members deliberately discussed the needs to use alternative renewable energy resources. It was predicated that the over usage of fossil fuels was the foundation of climate change. The summit brought out, some of the major policy frameworks in environment and energy, including the Agenda 21. This was the next step; world nations took towards sustainability. Ten years later, member nations initiated met for another dialogue in Johannesburg, South Africa. They discussed some of the major frameworks of Rio, extensively. The dialogue resulted in the development of the Johannesburg Declaration, which continued the plan for a green economy. The Asian green economy Looking at the progress of developing and developed economies in Asia, nation such as India, Indonesia, Thailand, China and Japan, have an exponential increase in their production, becoming leading suppliers of cloth, technology, automobile parts, and besides heavy factory goods. With stable monetary policies, the industrialization has resulted in exponential growth simultaneously increasing the demand for energy. Moreover, in Asia, China and India are the largest consumers of energy sources, with increased coal, oil and natural gas as compared to the rest of the world. This massive consumption of energy has resulted in increased demand in energy, which are already been exhumed. The renewable sources of energy are no longer sufficient to fulfil the demands forcing nations to rely on imports. These non-renewable resources are exported from OPEC countries in order to satisfy the large demands from Asian consumers. With rising Asian demands, the pricing with respect to production, trade, also increases drastically. More natural gas and energy imported to China, India and other large Asian countries, the more monopoly of the producers over consumers. The Situation today The immediate demand of growing energy has already foretold economic needs in the future. The World energy will be increased by 56 percent in the next three decades, driving significantly growth and economic development in China and India, according to a Robert Schnell, “Rising prosperity in China and India is a major factor in the outlook for global energy demand”, “this will have a profound effect on the development of world energy markets”, he further added. Coal and oil will be expected to become a major consumption in Asia. Today, the biggest market for coal is in Asia, which is over two thirds of its consumption. It is also important to understand that, China and other developing economies are recently industrialised, hence the demand is going to increase significantly. Moreover, there is the question of sustainability, as carbon dioxide is expected to increase 29% especially when most of the growth comes from developing economies. This points towards some notable signs, emissions growth is expected to be low as natural gas and renewables gain market share from coal and oil whereas emissions are expected to decline in Europe and in the US. By the end of the period, we expect economic growth in many developing economies, followed by a sharp fall in oil. Many argue that these non-renewable resources are helping an economy grow, reinforcing the national commitment to combat poverty. It is moreover true that, this kind of technology and energy costs time and money. The major reasons of poverty include vast residential, productive, and services. While initiating policies, the poor population are marginalised and there is the question of coordination and cooperation. Once we begin involving all stakeholders in the dialogue for necessary use of alternate use of natural resources, can only we do a lot more than just find secondary sources to energy. The Issue The increasing demands of energy under no circumstances be overlooked, and neither can drastic unpredictable climate change and its consequences. In China, factories continue to produce goods, emitting significant pollutants in the atmosphere. These pollutants hare further deteriorating the climate as we speak. This has global warming has significantly affected the animal life, their migration patterns, along with the toxins of humans. As many species continue to extinct, the prices struggle to stabilize and markets fails to provide goods, creating shortages. Moreover, these demands are non-renewable and with decreasing availability, their availability continues too decrease. These resources cannot be used after it ceases from the earth. It is quite evident that, with increasing demands of energy by humans, these resources will not be able to fulfil. Alternate sources are necessary, not only for the existence of an ecology but also for the mankind. Conclusion Since the summit in Johannesburg, member nations of the UN, independent development agencies and agencies of the UN have been working relentlessly to provide a greener economy. However, there is still much to do at this time, especially when there are lapses in policy frameworks. The involvement of other development agencies especially environment experts is evident in this case. Also, it is important for policy makers to brainstorm and develop viable frameworks to sustain this economy using less amount of carbon emission, along with effective and efficient use of energy sources. There is drastic productions in Asia, and the growing demands to feed the growing needs of developing economies, clearly means that this is just a beginning. The demands are going to increase. Policy makers should add alternative resources in the equation and how an economy minus its dependency on fossil fuels, without compromising the needs of the people in Asia nor the sustainability in the world[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]