Environmental Studies Energy Policy - Assignment Example

Bayan Bukhari Energy Policy Bayan Bukhari Essay Fate of the world Introduction The PC game fate of the world puts the future of the world in the hands of the game player. There is an excellent link between the strategies that one puts in place and how far that one goes in saving the world from the environmental crisis. The game is based on years of research, and many of the crises are a possible reality for the future. The game highlights many of the things that people shy away from and prefer not to discuss which the fate of the world is (Fate of the World: Tipping Point, 2015). In the game play, there are various missions that can be undertaken to save the world. The fuel crisis is particularly interesting; the primary objective of the mission is to save the world from this crisis up to the year 2120 with hope still intact. However the player might lose the game if global warming goes above three degrees, the global human development index should not fall below 0.5 and one must not lose control of GEQ HQ region. The difficulty of the game highlights the difficulties that governments face today. It aims to motivate people to make changes in the fuel consumption so that they experience a better future (Fate of the World: Tipping Point, 2015). The background of the game is based on the year 2010 where through a decade of economic uncertainty. A period of growing civil unrest the world is experiencing the most erratic patterns of whether that has ever been experienced. There are various adverse effects of the global warming with cyclones being experienced. The melting of northern and southern ice caps has had its effects, threatening the extinction of the polar bears. Islands such as the Maldives have admitted that they might have to migrate their citizens and are calling for world leaders to check on the climate change (Fate of the World: Tipping Point, 2015). At the start of the game, the population is increasing, and temperature changes are being experienced there is also the melting of the ice caps. The north is melting more than the south. My first strategy is to reduce the carbon emissions because they contribute profoundly to global warming. The biggest contributors to the carbon emissions are North America, Europe, China, East Asia and Oceania. The recruitment of agents is crucial in these critical areas, and strategy is chosen for the area in question. All the strategies have their consequences that are listed. To stop global warming, I chose different strategies for the different zones. For China I tried to commit to renewable, in North America I chose to commit to electrical energy mostly because they have established an infrastructure for this. It was also crucial for them as it would cut down on oil dependencies (Fate of the World: Tipping Point, 2015). Screen shot of strategy laid in place in North America. In Europe, I was forced to commit to the starting of a regional environmental office that would help in guiding the environment through a transition to less carbon emission. In Russia, I started an environmental protection agency for the purpose of protecting the environment through the development. For Japan, which contributes to high carbon emissions due to large number of motor vehicles, I chose to start a regional environmental office. The office will be mandated with the task of environmental protection through enforcement of policies. In Oceania, I chose to commit to renewable that take a little more time to implement but have no carbon emissions. When my strategies were implemented, I realized that there were other problems that were created along the way. Most of the regions that were chosen suffered from other shortages such as water oil and gas shortages. It was up to me to change the situation by coming up with new strategies to fix the conditions. I went ahead to recruit more people and the recruitment was done in the Middle East and building of a political office was placed there. Another person was hired in India, and a welfare office was set there. The last recruitment was done in southern Africa, and a welfare agency placed there. When I had consumed my budget, I played my cards to see the results of the strategies (Fate of the World: Tipping Point, 2015). The results were not very pleasing, and the following were some of the headlines I got. Resources faced shortages hindering growth, and the emissions are still rising, and temperatures were still not right. At this point, the world had reached 1 degree of warming with there being an impending danger. There was an expected increase in disaster and permanent regional change. There is also a confirmation from GEO that gas production levels are falling. Global oil production is declining, and an increase in the greenhouse effect is being felt. At this point, the Earth’s population had grown by 270mllion with a population of 758 billion. The emissions report showed me that only three regions were emitting greater than expected carbon emissions while the other regions had stayed the same. The global popularity had grown over time although not all regions are in support. There is a need to have support from all the regions otherwise there might be difficulties and call for a step from office. According to the many reports that come up after the first phase there is need to make changes in the strategies. According to the reports, changes are made, in Europe I switched to electronic transport. In the Middle East, I chose to have a regional office because of austerity protests and crawling technological levels. India has low levels of agricultural supplies and therefore forced for the establishment of an environmental protection office. Africa has lagged behind in matters of environment and societal development. In the case of South Africa, there is a need to cater for their medical well fare program. I also found the need for the establishments of agents in Latin America, North Africa, and South Asia. These regions have small development with some facing massive deforestation, hunger, drought and political instabilities that have to be stopped. The use of political cards proved to be helpful especially in areas facing civil wars and in areas that had drought and hunger environmental offices are established. The South Asia is in need of Education and Research Office (Fate of the World: Tipping Point, 2015). Importance of global challenge and striking a balance in the problems faced In the game play I came to realize that there is need to balance out policies so that you are not affected in the next decade. In a particular instance I had invested heavily in Africa’s education and drought protection while reducing carbon emissions in the rest of the developed world. To my surprise I realized that Africa’s emissions had doubled due to spiraling populations and improvement in the countries HDI. The whole continent had undergone rapid modernization and urbanization. Although environmental awareness was a policy I could play out it would still take decades to pull emissions down. One might strengthen certain regions making citizens happy but balance should be maintained to ensure that no areas are left to destroy the success achieved in others (Fate of the World: Tipping Point, 2015). Conclusion The fate of the world is a difficult game to play. Mostly it is because the change in one of the areas results in an adverse effect in other areas in the world. It is particularly difficult to amend the situation in Africa because some of the things that are being faced there. There are economic, social and energy crises all over making them a difficult to handle. I realized that some countries are in the handling of technology, and therefore investment in the area would be crucial to them. These areas include Europe and North America and respond very positively to change. A lot of money is spent on China. It is because it is developing to the level of the first world. An investment in the control of their emissions would be useful to the country. Different areas of the world present different needs and their complaints in the news stories are a reminder to these. Although problems might be the same for the various states, there is need to implement different strategies depending on the cause factors. There is also the policy of cutting on emissions through the use of electrical power and the banning of coal and gas use. Although this approach is useful, it is however very difficult to balance the energy levels. The adverse effect of this policy may be the lack of energy balances. The focus of renewable resources is critical because of high emissions rates in the years 2080. Essay 2: Question chosen: one Introduction Environmental conservation is a major issue in the study of the environment policies and also in the making of energy policies today. Various energy policies have affected the environment in different ways having been enacted without much consideration for the environment. The world is made up of the developed and developing their potential energy production levels. Some of the developing countries include India and China. It is a fact that this country cannot have the same energy policies like those of developed countries such as German, USA, and England. There are various reasons that call for the different energy policies. Energy policies are meant to address issues related to energy production, consumption, and distribution. The energy policies are made up of legislation treaties and incentives to investment. There are also guidelines for energy conservation, taxation and other techniques of public policy. The United States has transitioned through a variety of steps over an extended period. It is wise to say that not all energy policies can be to just any country, and developing nations need different strategies for their survival (Kaygusuz, 2012). 1. Discussion of how the energy policy for a developing country, such as China or India, should differ from the policies in developed countries. The current and previous generations have seen an increase in the energy policies so that they can meet the needs of the ever multiplying population. There has been a focus on the sustainable development. The world is focusing attention on how they can be able to cater to the needs of the current generation without deleting resources. The aspect of thinking has been adopted by many countries bring about similarities in the energy policies passed in the developing and developed countries (Zhang et al, 2011). The use of renewable sources of energy The global use of resources for energy has led to a state of depletion of some of the energy sources that were once available to the world. Because of these there has been the need to use renewable sources of energy. Various countries have adopted the policies including both developed and non-developed countries. In Africa for example, which is made up of the largest number of developing countries, there are several alternatives sources of energy that have replaced traditional methods. The use of wind power has been adopted worldwide, and it has increased the amount of energy that is produced by the continent as a whole. Although the United States has developed its backbone for several years, we still find ourselves having to use renewable forms of energy. It goes to show that some energy policies can be utilized in both developing and developed worlds. However, developing countries do not have a large variety of renewable resources. Recently German set the record for the highest amount of electricity generated from renewable resources.75% of the total electricity consumption coming from this source. Developing world is less likely to use the technology since they find it a bit expensive. Africa has only managed to harness about 5-7% of the total renewable energy power (Kaygusuz, 2012). By developing wind, solar and geothermal power the countries have the advantage of reducing dependence on such sources as natural gas and oil. It means that they become less vulnerable to rise in prices. Most of the circumstance has proven to be less expensive than dependence on fossil energy. A great example is a use of wind energy in Xinjiang China through the development of wind farms used to generate wind energy. Although the wind energy does not surpass that of the United States china wind energy harnessing is crucial producing 35,937 in thousand MWh of electricity. More than 30000 small solar panels with each producing about 11 to 30 watts are used country wide. The lamps can then be used all over the country making there be more chances for the use of solar power every year rather than taking connections to the country’s main electric grid. The first barrier to renewable energy rise in the third world developing the world is cost. Access to modern forms of electricity is necessary for all fundamental advancements in the quality of life and for being able to grow a stable, modern economy. But most people in developing countries just cannot handle the cost of electricity with a rise in renewable energy. They need strategies that slow down the costs and cause a use of these technologies. Until the day clean power technologies will reach full price parity with that of oil energy, even the best strategy will come at an extra cost that can’t be handled by poor taxpayers in developing countries. That’s why there is a need for there to be international support. For an international donor, for example, the World Bank that’s dedicated to increasing access to energy. One naturally gets more renewable energy if instead of putting resources in individual wind farms; one invests in the policy environment that will make people want to build wind farms on their land. A crucial element of this methodology is access to data and methods. Even while feed-in-tariffs are, regulators do not have enough access to data about the costs of renewable energy resources and are heavily reliant on project implementers to provide these figures. The use of data and performance metrics, and also the techniques of competitive bidding are crucial support a growth of renewable energy resources. It has been proven that Independent oversight from civil society is an essential recipe for success here (Zhang et al, 2011). Conclusion There is numerous self-fulfilling signs to look out for developing countries are creating a better understanding of best methods in clean energy regulation. They include increased transparency of methodologies used assess resource capacity. Performance and standardized power purchase agreements; the performance that will benefit both governments and civil society organizations the developing world conventional energy policy and planning and of renewable. Most of the time, though, the way you’ll know that these strategies are working is when you see decreasing prices and improved dependency for electricity from renewable sources. Consequently, that’s the real test of these policies. One aspect we should look for is a rise in the number of states that use these strategies. There are also aspects of international moves in the works. The revised World Bank energy of 2011, hopefully, gave more weight energy. We should also focus towards the technology procedures that came from the climate conference in Cancun. These create a network of expertise and clean technology centers that will assist in experiences and building capacity. The world remains optimistic that the ongoing energy deliberations will be useful for the coming up with new energy policies. References Fate of the World: Tipping Point (2015). Retrieved < http://www.fateoftheworld.net/> Kaygusuz, K. (2012). Energy for sustainable development: A case of developing countries. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16(2), 1116-1126. Zhang, X. P., Cheng, X. M., Yuan, J. H., & Gao, X. J. (2011). Total-factor energy efficiency in developing countries. Energy Policy, 39(2), 644-650. Read More