Environmental Management – CIE Internatonal A-evel Geography Notes by William Botham
12.1 Sustainable energy supplies
Renewable and non-renewable energy resources
Resource – any part of the environment that can be used to meet human needs
Energy resource – something that can be used to provide people with heat, light and power
Non-critcal renewable energy resources have an unlimited availability e.g. solar, wind and tdal power
Critcal renewable energy resources require careful management as they can be used up at a faster rate than
they are being replaced e.g. energy produced from wood and biomass. Wood is renewable if replantng or
coppicing occurs
Coppicing – when trees are cut to their stump where they can stll regrow
Factors afectng the supply of and demand for energy at the natonal scale
Sustainability
A Meet current energy needs without compromising the ability of future generatons to meet their
energy needs
A Moving from fossil fuels to renewables should increase sustainability – a good sign that many natons
believe in this is the fact that nearly all natons signed the Kyoto agreement
Levels of development
A High energy use per capita is mostly confned to HICs and oilArich natons
A Commercial agriculture and manufacturing increases energy use of MICs and NICs
A HICs such as Japan can aford to import energy from other natons e.g. oil – import >90% of energy
A Energy consumed per capita in HICs is much higher than in MICs/-ICs
Resource endowment
A Russia has large oil and gas felds whereas China and ustralia have large coal reserves
A Oil rich natons such as those in the Middle East are able to exploit their energy resources to obtain
increased natonal incomes
A HEP is restricted to areas with high rainfall and high relief
A Solar power works best in sunny weather and wind power works best in the hills where wind speeds
are higher
Climate
A Efects energy supply especially for renewables as they depend on natural actvity
A Efects energy demand e.g. countries that are very cold and hot use heatng and cooling which uses a
large amount of electricity
World Energy prices
A Demand for energy has been growing faster than supply. Energy prices have tended to increase over
tme
A Rise in oil prices has led to new methods of producton becoming economically viable e.g. tar sands
Capital
A Most energy resource are expensive thus need large investment
A Finding and developing oil felds is costly especially as the number of potental sites decreases
A Power statons are expensive to develop
A Infrastructure and transport expensive
A HICs are able to spend on energy but -ICs depend on aid, FDI and TNCs e.g. oil extracton by shell etc.
A Countries lacking in capital investment may need capital investment from foreign natons or TNCs e.g.
Chinese investment in ngola
,Environmental Management – CIE Internatonal A-evel Geography Notes by William Botham
Technology
A dvancements have led to diferent methods of resource collecton and extracton
A New technologies lead to a lowering of extracton costs for fossil fuels
A Transportaton costs have fallen in the last 50 years
A Supply has increased due to new technologies creatng new methods of extracton e.g. fracking
Polluton
A Energy producton and transportaton have the potental to pollute natural environments e.g. an
incidental event such as Deepwater Horizon, 2010 can lead to many environmental hazards
A Fossil fuel use leads to global warming
A Economic development of -ICs – usually ignore polluton levels due to the economic beneft of using
such pollutng energy producton methods
A s countries develop, the quality of life is seen as important, thus the focus shifs to more sustainable
sources of energy
Energy policy
A Countries can limit the use of unsustainable energy e.g. switching to sustainable energy
A -ICs and MICs are unlikely to limit the use of fossil fuels as they are a cheap source of energy that is
needed to provide electricity for manufacturing and agriculture
A Supply and demand management – in HICs the government may limit the use of fossil fuels e.g.
through taxes or through carbon taxes which increases the costs of consumpton and place the
negatve externalites of such energy producton methods onto the consumer/producer
A Government can introduce legislaton to limit the use of fossil fuels
Supply management – government ensuring that supplies ae sufcient to match demand, they can do this by
providing grants for companies that are prepared to invest in renewables or invest in methods of producton
Demand management – involves decreasing the demand to match the limited supply – one method of doing
this is diferental electricity prices depending on the tme of day e.g. cheaper electricity between midnight and
6am when the demand is limited. Government can ban inefcient energy using appliances such as flament
bulbs. Cars with lower carbon emissions pay less road tax etc.
Energy conservaton – using energy more carefully and less wastefully
Energy security – uninterrupted availability of energy sources at a price that people and industry can aford
from domestc sources
The balance between diferent energy sources at the natonal scale – the
primary energy mix
Energy mix – describes the sources of energy that a country uses – resource endowment is a major factor
Britain’s energy
A New nuclear power plants being built
A Three challenges – supply ample power, at an afordable price, with limited greenhouse gas emissions
A Phase coal out to meet new targets – may be a problem in the short term as coal ofen provides the
base energy load
A Nuclear produces litle/no greenhouse gases
France’s energy
A -imited coal and oil reserves with most of such sources imported
A Coal mining ended in France in 2004
A France imports natural gas from north frica and the amount has been increasing
A Due to limited fossil fuels reserves, France invested heavily in nuclear power afer 1970 in order to
secure electricity producton
A round 70% of France’s electricity comes from nuclear – second largest producer of nuclear power
A Most renewable energy comes from HEP and biomass – has the frst largeAscale tdal power staton
, Environmental Management – CIE Internatonal A-evel Geography Notes by William Botham
India’s Energy
A Supply doesn’t meet demand
A More than 300 million have no power
A High costs of running on generators in power cuts – 4 tmes as costly
A nnual electricity shortall of 10%
A -ack of infrastructure – capital funds
A Estmated that $400 billion needs to be invested in power to meet the development goals
Kenya’s Energy
A Biomass is the main form of energy due to the fact that many aren’t connected to the electricity
network – the use of fuelwood exceeds the natural growth of forests making biomass a critcal
renewable energy resource – around 70%
A Oil is used in transportaton and energy producton around 20%
A Could exploit geothermal energy from the Rif alley region
Trends in the consumpton of fossil fuels, nuclear power and renewables
A Fossil fuels dominate world energy consumpton – growth expected to grow in the future
A Oil is the largest as it can easily be shipped/piped and is the only practcal fuel for transportaton
A Natural gas looked to overtake coal as the second largest energy resource in the 1990’s but due to
China’s rising demand for coal, coal has risen rapidly in the last two decades
A Coal is expected to rise the most due to the fact that it is the cheapest energy resource and poorer
developing natons have coal deposits and can aford to import coal
A Renewables have grown due to reductons in costs and the view that countries need to reduce their
reliance on fossil fuels as well as legislaton reducing CO 2 output
A Nuclear has stagnated in the last 30 years but it is expected to grow slightly in the future
Trends in the consumpton of fossil fuels
Consequences of 1973 oil crisis
A Prompted a search for energy savings and intensifed search for alternatves to oil
A Forced countries to search for energy alternatves
Crude oil
A Predicted to grow more slowly than overall world consumpton of energy – expected to remain
largest source of energy
A OPEC – 13 oil producing countries work together to control producton in order to infuence prices
and therefore infuence the trends of oil – legal cartel
A 2005+ increase in price of oil due to demand increasing more rapidly than supply
A Wars in the Middle East have impacted oil prices in the past e.g. 1990’s
A High oil prices have led to new methods of oil extracton becoming economically viable e.g. fracking,
tar sands and deepwater drilling
A In MICs 70% of oil demand is in transportaton
A 60% of oil is transported by oil tankers
A Environmental accidents can happen, causing billions in damages and having long term negatve
efects on ecosystems e.g. Deepwater Horizon 2010 and Exxon aldez laska, 198A9
A Increased price leads to increased biofuel/ethanol producton and usage
A Cheap oil is good for consumers but bad for corporatons, oil producing countries and the global
energy market as it undermines the development of other energy producton means (renewables)
Natural gas
A Cleanest fossil fuel with litle SO2 and half CO2 levels of coal and oil – used to be a byAproduct of oil
that was fared of due to difcultes with transportaton
A New technologies to extract gas from shale rocks, fracking, increases supply which then leads to
increased demand as costs fall or flls shortalls in supply
A -NG (-iquefed natural gas) is easy to transport and is a good energy source
12.1 Sustainable energy supplies
Renewable and non-renewable energy resources
Resource – any part of the environment that can be used to meet human needs
Energy resource – something that can be used to provide people with heat, light and power
Non-critcal renewable energy resources have an unlimited availability e.g. solar, wind and tdal power
Critcal renewable energy resources require careful management as they can be used up at a faster rate than
they are being replaced e.g. energy produced from wood and biomass. Wood is renewable if replantng or
coppicing occurs
Coppicing – when trees are cut to their stump where they can stll regrow
Factors afectng the supply of and demand for energy at the natonal scale
Sustainability
A Meet current energy needs without compromising the ability of future generatons to meet their
energy needs
A Moving from fossil fuels to renewables should increase sustainability – a good sign that many natons
believe in this is the fact that nearly all natons signed the Kyoto agreement
Levels of development
A High energy use per capita is mostly confned to HICs and oilArich natons
A Commercial agriculture and manufacturing increases energy use of MICs and NICs
A HICs such as Japan can aford to import energy from other natons e.g. oil – import >90% of energy
A Energy consumed per capita in HICs is much higher than in MICs/-ICs
Resource endowment
A Russia has large oil and gas felds whereas China and ustralia have large coal reserves
A Oil rich natons such as those in the Middle East are able to exploit their energy resources to obtain
increased natonal incomes
A HEP is restricted to areas with high rainfall and high relief
A Solar power works best in sunny weather and wind power works best in the hills where wind speeds
are higher
Climate
A Efects energy supply especially for renewables as they depend on natural actvity
A Efects energy demand e.g. countries that are very cold and hot use heatng and cooling which uses a
large amount of electricity
World Energy prices
A Demand for energy has been growing faster than supply. Energy prices have tended to increase over
tme
A Rise in oil prices has led to new methods of producton becoming economically viable e.g. tar sands
Capital
A Most energy resource are expensive thus need large investment
A Finding and developing oil felds is costly especially as the number of potental sites decreases
A Power statons are expensive to develop
A Infrastructure and transport expensive
A HICs are able to spend on energy but -ICs depend on aid, FDI and TNCs e.g. oil extracton by shell etc.
A Countries lacking in capital investment may need capital investment from foreign natons or TNCs e.g.
Chinese investment in ngola
,Environmental Management – CIE Internatonal A-evel Geography Notes by William Botham
Technology
A dvancements have led to diferent methods of resource collecton and extracton
A New technologies lead to a lowering of extracton costs for fossil fuels
A Transportaton costs have fallen in the last 50 years
A Supply has increased due to new technologies creatng new methods of extracton e.g. fracking
Polluton
A Energy producton and transportaton have the potental to pollute natural environments e.g. an
incidental event such as Deepwater Horizon, 2010 can lead to many environmental hazards
A Fossil fuel use leads to global warming
A Economic development of -ICs – usually ignore polluton levels due to the economic beneft of using
such pollutng energy producton methods
A s countries develop, the quality of life is seen as important, thus the focus shifs to more sustainable
sources of energy
Energy policy
A Countries can limit the use of unsustainable energy e.g. switching to sustainable energy
A -ICs and MICs are unlikely to limit the use of fossil fuels as they are a cheap source of energy that is
needed to provide electricity for manufacturing and agriculture
A Supply and demand management – in HICs the government may limit the use of fossil fuels e.g.
through taxes or through carbon taxes which increases the costs of consumpton and place the
negatve externalites of such energy producton methods onto the consumer/producer
A Government can introduce legislaton to limit the use of fossil fuels
Supply management – government ensuring that supplies ae sufcient to match demand, they can do this by
providing grants for companies that are prepared to invest in renewables or invest in methods of producton
Demand management – involves decreasing the demand to match the limited supply – one method of doing
this is diferental electricity prices depending on the tme of day e.g. cheaper electricity between midnight and
6am when the demand is limited. Government can ban inefcient energy using appliances such as flament
bulbs. Cars with lower carbon emissions pay less road tax etc.
Energy conservaton – using energy more carefully and less wastefully
Energy security – uninterrupted availability of energy sources at a price that people and industry can aford
from domestc sources
The balance between diferent energy sources at the natonal scale – the
primary energy mix
Energy mix – describes the sources of energy that a country uses – resource endowment is a major factor
Britain’s energy
A New nuclear power plants being built
A Three challenges – supply ample power, at an afordable price, with limited greenhouse gas emissions
A Phase coal out to meet new targets – may be a problem in the short term as coal ofen provides the
base energy load
A Nuclear produces litle/no greenhouse gases
France’s energy
A -imited coal and oil reserves with most of such sources imported
A Coal mining ended in France in 2004
A France imports natural gas from north frica and the amount has been increasing
A Due to limited fossil fuels reserves, France invested heavily in nuclear power afer 1970 in order to
secure electricity producton
A round 70% of France’s electricity comes from nuclear – second largest producer of nuclear power
A Most renewable energy comes from HEP and biomass – has the frst largeAscale tdal power staton
, Environmental Management – CIE Internatonal A-evel Geography Notes by William Botham
India’s Energy
A Supply doesn’t meet demand
A More than 300 million have no power
A High costs of running on generators in power cuts – 4 tmes as costly
A nnual electricity shortall of 10%
A -ack of infrastructure – capital funds
A Estmated that $400 billion needs to be invested in power to meet the development goals
Kenya’s Energy
A Biomass is the main form of energy due to the fact that many aren’t connected to the electricity
network – the use of fuelwood exceeds the natural growth of forests making biomass a critcal
renewable energy resource – around 70%
A Oil is used in transportaton and energy producton around 20%
A Could exploit geothermal energy from the Rif alley region
Trends in the consumpton of fossil fuels, nuclear power and renewables
A Fossil fuels dominate world energy consumpton – growth expected to grow in the future
A Oil is the largest as it can easily be shipped/piped and is the only practcal fuel for transportaton
A Natural gas looked to overtake coal as the second largest energy resource in the 1990’s but due to
China’s rising demand for coal, coal has risen rapidly in the last two decades
A Coal is expected to rise the most due to the fact that it is the cheapest energy resource and poorer
developing natons have coal deposits and can aford to import coal
A Renewables have grown due to reductons in costs and the view that countries need to reduce their
reliance on fossil fuels as well as legislaton reducing CO 2 output
A Nuclear has stagnated in the last 30 years but it is expected to grow slightly in the future
Trends in the consumpton of fossil fuels
Consequences of 1973 oil crisis
A Prompted a search for energy savings and intensifed search for alternatves to oil
A Forced countries to search for energy alternatves
Crude oil
A Predicted to grow more slowly than overall world consumpton of energy – expected to remain
largest source of energy
A OPEC – 13 oil producing countries work together to control producton in order to infuence prices
and therefore infuence the trends of oil – legal cartel
A 2005+ increase in price of oil due to demand increasing more rapidly than supply
A Wars in the Middle East have impacted oil prices in the past e.g. 1990’s
A High oil prices have led to new methods of oil extracton becoming economically viable e.g. fracking,
tar sands and deepwater drilling
A In MICs 70% of oil demand is in transportaton
A 60% of oil is transported by oil tankers
A Environmental accidents can happen, causing billions in damages and having long term negatve
efects on ecosystems e.g. Deepwater Horizon 2010 and Exxon aldez laska, 198A9
A Increased price leads to increased biofuel/ethanol producton and usage
A Cheap oil is good for consumers but bad for corporatons, oil producing countries and the global
energy market as it undermines the development of other energy producton means (renewables)
Natural gas
A Cleanest fossil fuel with litle SO2 and half CO2 levels of coal and oil – used to be a byAproduct of oil
that was fared of due to difcultes with transportaton
A New technologies to extract gas from shale rocks, fracking, increases supply which then leads to
increased demand as costs fall or flls shortalls in supply
A -NG (-iquefed natural gas) is easy to transport and is a good energy source
