Introduction
Today’s world energy era requires global cooperation as the energy sector is faced with many challenges that need action. The major challenge today is the crisis between energy and its impacts on climate. There is a need to develop energy sources that have low carbon effects yet sustainable enough to support even the next revolution in the industrial sector. It’s expected that by 2030 the demand for energy in the world will grow by about 50%. Yet the world climate has its temperatures increase each day which define to serious lasting effects on the environment, ecosystems, and the economy of all parts of the world. The European Union is one of the major stakeholders in the global energy market. The situation of energy in the world, therefore, influences the European Union’s situation a great deal influencing the approaches they use to develop more secure and environmentally friendly energy policies.
This paper discusses the energy policies in the European Union, Its energy situation specifically for natural gas and fuel and its sustainability, and the relationship between the European Union and Russia.
European Union Energy policies
Some guidelines have been put in place to direct energy usage by the citizens and those residing in the European Union. The energy sector policymakers in the European Union are however faced with the challenge of ensuring minimal environmental impact from the energy sector as the EU is one of the leaders in addressing environmental issues like Climate change. Considering that it is the greatest energy consumption of up to 16% of the total energy consumed in the world, the European Union determines the impacts of energy type used on the environment to a large extent. This, therefore, gives the European Union a big Challenge in its policy formulation on energy. At the same time, it has to consider its citizens’ satisfaction as an energy source in terms of efficiency, reliability and cost. Most of the affordable energy sources are however not environmentally friendly while those that are environmentally friendly are many at the time very expensive. The policy focus in the European Union, therefore, aims at targeting those energy sources that have low carbon emissions to protect the environment, those that are renewable so that they are reliable, and those that are pocket-friendly for the consumers.
The energy situation
The EU energy production scheme is based on three major strategies, they include; Sustainability where the concentration is more on renewable sources of energy that are environmentally friendly and user friendly. Competitiveness where more efficient energy sources with fewer risks and less expensive are being targeted. Security of supply where the energies should be more reliable and in constant availability that is, sustainable supply (Gooch 2). The European Union is one of the highest consumers of world energy with about 16% of total world energy consumption by 1998. The most widely used form of energy is petroleum then natural gas (Quinto 11).
Nuclear energy
There are many perceptions of nuclear energy in the world today. Some countries like Spain and Germany are slowly doing away with nuclear energy and are committed to this while countries like the UK have committed themselves to the development of nuclear power through such things as building new nuclear power plants. Other countries have already well-established nuclear power points, these include Finland and Ukraine. However, it should be noted that the UK was the first country to produce and use nuclear power on large scale back in 1956. Nuclear power in Europe today covers about one-third of electricity produced and caters for about 15% of its energy needs as per 2005. Nuclear energy is characterized by relatively lower prices and generally has lower amounts of carbon compared to other energy sources. These qualities make nuclear energy attractive in this era when our main global environmental concern is climate change (Gooch 1). Euratom was formed in the 1950s when states including Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France among others came together to develop a way of facing the conventional energy shortage back then and they considered nuclear energy as a way of tackling the situation in order to achieve energy independence. Their main target was to form and develop nuclear energy stations in Europe and the other states would gain from the atomic energy developments. This was to be achieved through research, protecting both the environment and the consumers of the energy from any risks that would be related to the use of this energy (Glachant 1). Although nuclear power is much more environmentally friendly compared to fossil fuels, it is much more expensive and disposal of nuclear waste is also a challenge. Therefore, it is not considered an option to the energy sector in terms of sustainability, cost, and reliability.
Natural Gas
Natural gas today contributes up to 23% of the overall world energy consumed. Europe, it should be noted, depends heavily on gas and oil, and 50% of the energy consumed in Europe is usually imported. In the 1970s, natural gas was the second-highest energy consumed. The demand for natural gas energy in Europe has been growing over time and this is likely to increase. Consequently, more CCGT power plants have been developed in Europe as a form of response to the growing demand. The growing demand for natural gas in Europe is presumed to be due to increasing supply, low negative impacts on the environment, lower cost compared to electricity and nuclear power, and flexibility of gas. It is said to be the fastest-growing form of primary energy (Clingedael 8).
Sustainability
Nuclear energy generates electricity and therefore it has to emit some amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However, the amounts of carbon dioxide produced from nuclear energy consumption are relatively low. Other advantages of using nuclear power include its availability and the fact that it produces huge amounts of electric energy. However, the question of its sustainability is not clear as it is associated with such negative impacts like the production of radioactive wastes during its consumption and this wastes disposal remains a challenge considering some people may use it in the production of nuclear weapons. The waste produced from nuclear energy is radioactive hence its disposal is a great challenge as it may have many negative impacts on people for a very long time and sometimes for more than a thousand years. Considering the risk that accidents do occur, there is a high risk when nuclear power is used widely and there are many power plants. The energy sources can be scarce considering it is produced from uranium that may be hard to come by. Construction of a nuclear power plant takes a long time, usually between twenty and thirty years which may end up being time-consuming. Nuclear power is not considered sustainable, this is mainly because usually any nuclear plant is considered a threat to human life, and considering the consumption of this form of energy produces radioactive emissions, it is not sustainable. The other reason why it is not sustainable is due to the form of raw material required for its production. As discussed earlier, the mineral used for the production of nuclear power is uranium and it’s scarcely available in small quantities which makes it not reliable for long-term usage on large scale (Kristin 4). Environmentally, it should be noted that nuclear power produces larger amounts of greenhouse gasses compared to renewable energy sources like wind and solar energy. Therefore, it is not a solution to reducing climate change but a short-term measure to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels that produce much higher amounts of greenhouse gasses that lead to climate change in general and global warming in particular. Energy from nuclear power is said to be like a two-headed dragon, this is from the Copenhagen talks on the 11th of Dec. 2009. The energy itself is a risk and the waste material are a threat to livelihood as they are bound to the development of nuclear weapons. This makes nuclear energy neither safe nor sustainable.
Natural gas is a form of fossil fuel that is however considered to be cleaner than other fossil fuels. When used as a source of energy, natural gas produces sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, and other greenhouse gases though at lower levels as compared to other sources of energy. It is therefore considered to cause much less environmental pollution. It is therefore expected that the consumption of natural gas will grow for this reason. However, it has its negative impacts on the environment that include; during its storage, it emits small amounts of methane gas which is its major component, and since methane is a major greenhouse gas. Methane gas is also believed to leak during the usage and consumption of natural gas. Therefore, it contributes a great deal to climate change. During its burning, it produces carbon dioxide which also contributes greatly to global warming. Today, the world’s major social, economic, and environmental concern is climate change. According to the Copenhagen accord, natural gas consumption is a major reliable pathway towards the reduction of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. They consider the replacement of coal and oil. Gas, according to Copenhagen is a faster solution as compared to nuclear energy as it is produced is quicker, then it produces lesser environmental risks and it is far much cheaper than nuclear energy (Mason 7).
Relationship with Russia
Russia neighbors the EU and considering it is one of the greatest exporters of gas and oil while the EU is one of the greatest energy consumers, the EU imports natural gas from Russia. Generally, the two countries have a mutual relationship where Russia produces large amounts of energy while the European Union provides the market for this energy. The two countries have therefore formed a partnership that is based on energy provision and quality improvement where they aim at reducing the environmental impact of the energy produced in Russia. Today, Russia is among the top three partners with the European Union in trade. The relationship between the two countries is based on four major policies; that is, on the economy, freedom and justice, security and the environment. This, therefore, has led to the cooperation of the two neighbors on a variety of issues that affect them and the world in general. Some of the issues they deal with include human trafficking, use of drugs, Climate change, Iran issues among others. The strategic relationship between the two countries is however based on natural gas as this is the major export of Russia to the European Union. Although other countries like Qatar, Egypt, and Nigeria export natural gas to the European Union, Russia still remains the largest exporter of natural gas to the European Union (Clinendael 14).
Conclusion
Energy type is one of the major world concerns today as it contributes a great deal to climate change and global warming particularly. Everyone today is concerned about these issues and the European Union is one of the most concerned states yet they are they consume most of the energy consumed in the world today. For a long time now, energy has been an issue and everybody in the environment sector is concerned about the development of new types of energy that will be more sustainable and cost-friendly. This, therefore, has changed our focus from fossil-like oil, coal, and wood fuels to renewable energy sources that are believed to be more environmental and user-friendly.
Works Cited
Clinendael. International Energy Programme: Natural gas supply for the EU in the short to medium term. The Hague: The clingedael institute, 2004.
Glachant, Jean-Michel. “EU Energy Policy.” energypolicy, 2010. Web.
Gooch, Anthony. “EU focus.” Eurunion, 2010. Web.
Kristin Ann Peterson. “Sustainability of nuclear power.” timeforchange.org, 2006. Web.
Mason, Rowena. “Copenhagen: why gas is rising victoriously after two weeks of talk.” Telegraph media group. 2009. Web.
Quinto Javier, Navvaro Antonio, and Watt Richard. “Rapport on social and economic cohesion: energy.” Europa, 2000. Web.