Effects of Energy and Electricity Supply on the Environment

Discuss About The Environment And Sustainable Development.

It has been found that global buildings are responsible for approximately consuming 40 per cent of the total world annual energy. This energy is used for the provision of heating, cooling, lighting and air conditioning. The environmental damage that arise from the energy and electricity supply include the occupational illness and the injuries in the energy supply industries, injuries and public illness caused due to the effluents and the accidents concomitant with the energy supply. In addition, there is immense damage caused to the human health, well-being of the individuals and the safety issues that is associated with the ecological disruption and the climatological processes and the conditions (Elliott 2012). Another problem that emerges due to the supply of electricity and energy can be attributed to the social and the political conditions along with the biogeophysical ones that demand another category of damages, and the social and the political disruptions that are concomitant to the energy supply. It has been found that no energy psychology is potentially free from the environmental hazards. Secondly, it has been found that the quantification of the external agents of the environment costs and is the residual damages and the risks that arise after the control and it becomes difficult to conceptualize. There is a great pressure on the human welfare that would improve the greatest impact of the human welfare that would be associated with category of damages (Schweizer-Ries 2008). It has been found that all energy sources have drawback from the perspective of the environment (Griggs et al. 2013). Exploitation of the source of energy can culminate to undesirable and damaging by-products that would drive the supply down of the other products. It is true that irrespective of the safety measures, hazards will exist and there will be high chance for the occurrence of accidents. The two worst forms of energy sources that have been identified are coal and biomass.

The burning coal, the wood, or the residual product liberates harmful gases into the atmosphere. These gases are carbon dioxides, nitrous oxides, sulphur oxides and other impurities poses health problems for the individuals. It has been reported that 70 per cent of the dust smoke emission, 67 per cent of the nitrogen oxide, 70 per cent of the carbon dioxide in China can be attributed to the coal emission (Holden, Linnerud and Banister 2017). It has been found that during the act of coal burning, mercury is liberated into the atmosphere and the mercury would enter the environment as industrial air pollution from the factories once the coal is burnt. Since this is a global pollutant, it disperses the pollutant in the globe that influences the five continents. It has been found that the third of the US’s lakes were destroyed. The global environment degradation can be attributed to the rise in the greenhouse gases that is more particularly to do with Carbon dioxide (CO2) that makes it for the large contribution to the global warming. Co2 is liberated into the environment and the fossil fuel is combusted for the use of energy. Among the different types of fossil fuel present in the atmosphere coal is found to be responsible for releasing the Co2 into the atmosphere and therefore contributes to the highest accounting to global warming (Field and Barros 2014). There has been a severe effect of the increase in the numerous and well-known influence on the health of the human beings. In addition, it poses pressure on the forest resources, water resources, coastal areas, natural areas and the agriculture. There is evident regional pollution that is embodied in the acid rain that takes place when the SO2and the NOx that are fused in the air and create acidic compounds that are taken into the atmosphere. Acid deposition have been identified as the potential environmental problem that can jeopardize the lives of the biological means.

Challenges of Environmental Sustainability and Development

The policymakers need to understand the areas where they would need to make the necessary amendments and seek solutions on what can be done in the present situation. Improvements in the environment are related to the pricing incentives or the regulatory intervention. There are regulations in the usage of water by reducing the amount of water that is wasted. The recent incident concerning the reduction of water has been found to be most pronounced in the countries that have eliminated their subsidies for the usage of water and the applied charges on water so as to promote the culture of more careful water usage. The main reductions in energy intensity are related to the OECD economies, marginal costs and the water supply. The main reductions in the energy are not driven by the environmental policy that have taken place during the major oil price shocks of the 1970s when there was an increase in the price of energy. It has been found that the government regulations and the restrictions have the potential in successfully minimizing the levels of the air pollutants, industrial pollution, cleaning up the polluted surfaces and in phasing out of the CFCs.  Direct intervention by the government has been found to be useful in increasing the size and the number of natural areas in the OECD countries. That have conserved or they have restricted on the use, protecting the ecosystem along with the biodiversity. The government policies have the potential to facilitate changes that are compatible for the environment and in other consumption patterns. This is true for developing the organic agriculture and the environmentally sustainable agricultural practices along with the rapid growth of which the OECD countries is partly due to the greater consumer demand and also to the government support (Elliot 2012). There is a growing public access to the environmental concern and the policy-making process that can influence individual consumption choices and increase the support for the environmental practices. At present, most of the environmental problems have been dealt in an efficient manner. However in the future the problems are likely to become complex and the resolution would require more difficult trade-offs and deeper international co-operation (Field and Barros 2014). It has been found that the potential effects have been quantitatively assessed. There needs to be the deployment of a ix of policy instruments that would combine the robust regulatory framework along with different instruments. They should be the incorporation of stronger pricing mechanisms that would influence the behavior of the producers and the consumers, the voluntary agreements, eco-labels, tradable permits and the information-based incentives, infrastructure provision and the land-use regulation (Shariatzadeh, Mandal and Srivastava2015). There should be the elimination of subsidies that are harmful for the environment. In addition, there should be more systematic use of the environmental tax, charges and the economic instruments that would ensure that the prices are right. A policy simulation needs to be undertaken to address the number of red light issues that have been identified in the course of time. The simulation of the light combined with the elimination of the subsidies in the place of OECD countries with the imposition of the tax on the use of energy and tax on the use of chemicals. The effect of the environment on the policy mix have been found to be substantial along with carbon dioxide (CO2) emission that are projected to  be 15 per cent lower in 2020 that is compared with the business like scenario. Whilst the sulphur dioxide (Sox) emissions have been projected to  be 9 per cent lower , nitrogen to the waterways have been found to be 30 per cent lower and the methane emissions are 3 per cent lower (Peters et al 2012). The policy package and the economic cost of securing the environmental benefits are estimated to be marginal that would result in the total GDP level that would be less than the 1 per cent in the OECD regions in 2020 than the usual business. Therefore, the overall GDP in the OECD regions is projected to grow by 60 per cent between 1995-2020 along with the policy package as compared with the 61 per cent increase in the business as usual (Omer 2008).

Government Regulations and Policies on the Environment

There needs to be focus on the major environmental issues that face the OECD countries and the strategy that needs to be identified are five inter-connected objective too intensify the cost-effective and operational environmental policies that are in the context of sustainable development. These are concerned with maintaining the integrity of the ecosystems through efficient management of the natural resources. Next, it is concerned with the de-coupling of the environmental pressures from the economic growth. Thirdly, it is concerned with improving the information for decision-making and the incorporation of the indicators that would measure the progress and in enhancing the quality of life (Field and Barros 2014). There should be improvement of the governance and the cooperation and there is now global environmental interdependence. The OECD environmental strategy have recognized that the challenges for the next decade and the national actions taken by the countries to agree regarding the addressable of the environmental issues that they face and the indicators that can be employed in assessing the progress and the work of OECD that would be supportive (Ball 2014). There needs to be the adoption of the Environmental Strategy . ecosystems can be managed and maintained through strict implementation. Human pressures on the environment will not ease until there are strong policy actions to protect the environment and maintain the essential services. There needs to be national strategies for setting the price right and ensuring that full costs are taken into account in case of the natural resources through policy instruments and market. For reducing the impact of greenhouse gas and increasing carbon-dioxide-absorbing sinks, there needs to be the adoption of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and continuing process in conjunction with the international processes. There needs to timely ratification of the process and the broadest support from the international community.. There needs to be incentives for reducing the emissions through the means of technological and social innovation, market-based instruments through green tax reform and subsidy removal.Climate change adaptation and mitigation can be addressed on all the three levels. These three level structuresare that Australia needs to identify three or more than strategy policy areas or dimensions of sustainable development. This can be done through managing the natural resources, sustainable consumption and production, living spaces, global responsibility or the sustainable economic development. At the second level, Australia can list the concrete objectives this may be done through the direct reference to climate change, establishing the climate change mitigation programme, limiting the climate change and enhancing the use of clean energy. Another strategy can be through the adaption to the adverse effects of the climate change. Therefore at this stage a small set of priorities need to be recognized. Then there is the third level that would be concerned with amore specific and disaggregated list of aims and the concrete actions are laid out. A comprehensive set of actions can be laid out or there can be deference to other description or the development of the concrete plans at the sectoral level. Communities and people play a pivotal role in each of the three global agendas. This would be done with the objective of benefiting from action and innovating and leading with new ideas. This would involve the neighbors by galvanizing them to be part of environmental issues that concerns the different groups. There should be people-centred approach just like it was done in the Brazilian Climate Action on Agriculture (Panayotou 2016). The goal in this case would be to increase the agricultural outputs through the succour of the state commissions and state level interventions. This would be done by involving the civil society. The people-centred approach to the climate change can be another effective way where the farmers do not pursue adaptation, disaster risk and sustainable development but the aim would be to address the everything together to improve the livelihoods of the people. Communities are critical agents in ushering in change for all the three agendas and the local actors can drive the processes of policymaking at the higher level.

Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture Practices

There needs to  be the establishment of the of domestic policy responses to the environment and climate change Thee needs to be the facilitation of dialogue and supporting the analysis in the developmental, environmental and the social connections between the climate change and the sustainability and that would contribute to the exchange of information on the climate change policies. The idea would be to reduce the threats that are posed to the ecosystem and the species with the aim of integrated physical planning activities and the different policies. There should be de-coupling of the environmental pressures from the aspect of economic growth to the continued economic growth that needs to be accompanied by improving the quality of the environment. It should be made sure that the net effect of de-coupling across the economic sectors would combine to ensure that the criteria of environmental sustainability are adequately met (Rydin 2012). There needs to be recognition of the assimilative and the regenerative capacity of the environment that would avoid the irreversible effects on the ecosystem and by ensuring the substitution possibilities exist in case of the non-renewable resources. In the context of agriculture, the ultimate challenge lies in steadily decreasing the negative environmental impact on the agricultural production through ensuring that there is sufficient agricultural production for feeding the world population. The government needs to ensure the costs that includes both the environmental and the social like the pricing of the irrigation water, promotion of the sustainable farming systems, environmental sound farm management practices.  There needs to phase out or reform . There has been insufficient progress made in the direction of addressing issues relating to the health and the environmental impact. There needs to be a proactive approach in working towards the full internalization and effective environmental costs on the transportation for planning to reduce the need to travel and therefore switching to eco-friendly and sustainable modes of transport. Environmental degradation is increasing at a slow rate compared to the economic growth and there is overall environmental degradation and reduction in the intensity of energy by 20 per cent whilst there is an increase in the total energy by 35 per cent (Panayotou 2016). In order to realize this total reductions the negative environmental impact of energy use there needs to be transformation to significant changes in the fuel mix through the greater replacement of the polluting fossil fuels through the ;alternative means of renewable resources and the cleaner fuels. The use of the technological route to sustainability is quite underdeveloped by incorporating the concept of decoupling of the economic growth from the resource requirements. Earlier predictions have found that resource exhaustion have been invalidated through technological processes. Once it has been decided by the society the kind of transformations they wish to seek, they can respond to the development. Such societal demand is necessary for technological feasibility and challenging the consumption patterns of the developed country. It is necessary to understand that the changes in the consumption patterns to move into the general directions. In the market economy, it can be seen that prices play an important role in the determination of the consumption towards sustainability. Presence of externalities and the market price do not ensure sufficient allocation of the resources that needs to be corrected and internalized. There are commodities that lead to high level of greenhouse gas emissions and can be priced to the way in which the cost will be imposed on climate change. The World Commission on Environmental and Development report have found that needs of the future generation can be met through controlling the resource consumption of the present generation (Winzer 2012). There is a difference between strong sustainability and weak sustainability. In case of strong sustainability it allows the sustainability between the natural capital and the produced capital. On the other hand, weak capital allows sustainability through substitution. There remains concern about the transformation that has been proposed for the employment, economic growth and income of the populations. Following the footsteps of the Millennium Development, the idea would be to consolidate the protocols of the goal. It is important to pay attention to the issues that concerns the quality of life and there should be significant progress to keep a tab on the schools on whether they follow the appropriate strategies. More attention needs to be paid to the compatibility and the coherence of the issues by looking into the different dimensions. There needs to be an emphasis on the Millennium Development as well as the human development. There should be recognition of heterogeneity and conservation of the resources promoted by the different communities. Assess the effectiveness of current and proposed Australian energy and climate policies in driving the electricity industry towards more sustainable outcomes, with particular climate change.

Role of Public Access and Environmental Concerns

It has been found that the total emissions in Australia have remained constant in the last 25 years and the emissions in 2014 were found to be contributing to the 3 per cent below in 1990. Emissions have rose in the past 25 years and excluding the emission estimates it has been found that this is quite problematic considering the emissions management and the performance. The concerted effort of the Australian government can be witnessed in the policy outcome related to Australia that has led to a near complete failure in the reduction of the national emissions for a brief period. It needs to be understood that Australia has a significant decarbonization challenge that would meet the existing targets. However, the target set by the country is currently in the weakest from the developed nations of the world. According to the Climate Action Tracker Assessment, it has been found that Australia would reduce the veracity of greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 per cent from 2005 that includes the land-use change, land-use and the forestry by 2030. This target amounts to the equivalent of the range of 5 per cent below to 5 per cent above the 1990 levels of the GHG emissions (Mudd 2010). Except for Australia, all other countries like New Zealand and Canada have exhorted for the goals to be accomplished by 2025 or 2030 that would be below the 1990 level. This demonstrates that Australia’s commitment is not in conjunction with the majority of the interpretations for the fair approach. Australia has the track record for participating in the global emissions reduction agreement for meeting and beating the emissions reduction target whilst maintaining the population growth. . Australia is one among the 191 countries that ratified the first commitment during the period of the Kyoto Protocol (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2015). The target was achieved by the country for the period of the Kyoto Protocol. It has been able to achieve the target of limiting the emissions to 108 per cent  of the 1990 levels  for the period of 2008-2012. Australia is one of the 96 countries that amended the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Australia is in the track of achieving the 2020 target of reducing the emissions by 5 per cent below the 2000 levels. It has ratified the Paris Agreement that was done during the 45^th Parliament in November 2016 (Neves and Leal 2010). Australia made the 2030 target to reduce the emissions by 26-28 per cent that is below the 2005 levels amounting to halving per person emission and two-thirds of the reduction in the intensity of emission of the economic activities. In this regard it can be considered as the strongest targets (Jordan and Lenschow 2009). The progress of the emissions target in Australia is measured through the cumulative emissions for the definite period. This is reflective of the cumulative emissions that are liberated into the atmosphere over the time and not the emission in any one single year that would determine the impact on the climate. Australia’s 2030 target Australia’s emissions projections 2017 demonstrate that Australia has made progress since the inception of the earlier emissions projections. The estimated emissions reduction over 2021 to 2030 has decreased by 120 Mt CO2 since the 2016 during the projections and the 1200 Mt CO2 of the 2014-15 (Chu, Cui and Liu 2017).  However, the task of emissions reduction does not include abatement that is incurred from the measures of the development that includes the efficiency of the standards of the vehicle or the National Energy Guarantee. The emissions projection have been found to be making informed decision regarding the potential and future growth of Australia in the world map. This uncertainty is increased due to furtherance into the future that is projected. The projection of the emissions have substantially been revised downwards over the past considering the factors that are lower compared to the demand for electricity, the faster than expected technology change and the Global Financial Crisis. The projection of 2016 includes the sensitivities that demonstrate the emissions and that it may change according to the different assumptions and perceptions. Although there are historical correlations there has been improved efficiency that would ensure the reduction in energy demand. This is manifested in the dominant contribution for the minimization of the carbon emissions (Mudd 2010). Energy efficiency is considered the outputs of energy for the specified system that includes the machine tool, motor, firm, the industrial process and the entire economy.

Incentives for Reducing Emissions

The evaluation of the energy inputs have raised concerns, as it is different energy carriers that are combined and there is a common approach to sum the thermal content of each energy carrier. The National Energy Customer Framework (NECF) is considered one of the final steps in the national energy reform process that is agreed by the COAG. The NECF comprises of the of the implementation of steady framework for the regulation of the retail supply of the gas and electricity. In Australia, the implementation of the NECF is strived at the promotion of specific competition that would be beneficial for the consumers through the creation of the efficiencies and reduction of the regulatory burden of the energy businesses that is operative across the different jurisdictions that occupy the national energy market. Key energy efficiencies in the Territory have led to the improvement in the efficiency measures that are cost-effective and have led to the improvement in the heating, lighting, space cooling, and refrigeration and standby power savings. There is reduced demand for the energy that is due to the efficiency improvements that have been able to improve the reliability of the networks through the peak loads and in lowering the energy supply costs by deferring the requirement for the new investments in the networks and the generation of capacity (Jordan and Lenschow 2009). Energy efficiency and the policies are coordinated at the national level that is subsumed under the National Framework for Energy Efficiency. There has been timely implementation of the energy efficiency reforms that emerged from the National Partnership Agreement on Energy Efficiency and it is subject to cost benefit analysis. The ACT Government has switched to low emission in the form of vehicles and it has already been introduced in Australia’s first Green Vehicles stamp duty scheme that based on the environmental performance (Ross and Dovers 2008). The ACT government has reviewed the existing Green Vehicles scheme to assess in what ways it can be strengthened with the objective of encouraging the people to adopt for clean and efficient vehicle to fulfill the demands. There has been new pricing and the regulatory policies that has been explored through the Transport Pricing study 2011-2-12. There have been opportunities recognized for the reduced consumption of fuel from the eco-driving. The push and pull measures have encouraged people to veer towards public transport that do not lead to harmful consequences for the environment. The Canberra Policy by the government of Australia have been helpful in catering to the travel demand and in mitigating the impact of environmental hazards.

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