Environmental Sustainability in the EU - Essay Example

The World Commission on Environment and Development’s report (United Nations 1987) states that environmental sustainability is a development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The energy sector is by far the most taxing on the environment and is also the most crucial in terms of our need and dependence on a secure and regular supply of energy. In the last two decades, the concept of environmental sustainability in this respect has gained newfound importance by the heightened awareness of environmental problems such as climate change and the extreme dependence on the economically unreliable supply of fossil fuels and their dwindling reserves.

The European Union (EU) has been at the forefront of attempting to gradually adapt the concept of environmental sustainability. EU’s current target is to be able to supply 20% of its energy requirements through renewable energy by 2020 (European Commission 2010). EU’s gradual adoption of renewable energy as a significant resource as part of its total energy supply is an attempt to secure a long-term supply of energy for its residents while at the same time reducing the negative effects of energy use on the environment by reducing the use of fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are the primary cause of greenhouse emissions. Not only that, there is a finite supply of fossil fuels reserves which are being consumed at an accelerating rate. The fact that fossil fuels are the primary energy resource and provide the feedstock for almost all of the manufacturing industry at some stage of production calls for a need for the conservation of these resources and the search for alternates. The environmentally sustainable nature of renewable energy is inherently more economically stable and therefore will remain more affordable in the future compared to the unreliable and volatile fossil fuel market.

One of the renewable energy initiatives the EU is promoting is the use of biofuels. A biofuel is any fuel that is obtained from a renewable biological resource, such as wood or as in the case of the EU’s new and largest biofuel refinery situated in Britain, wheat. The biofuel energy model works on the principle that plants not only provide a renewable source of fuel compared to finite fossil fuel reserves, they also fit into the current carbon cycle and provide us with fuel by using carbon dioxide already present in the atmosphere instead of introducing more carbon by releasing it from fossil fuels. Other significant advantages of biofuel are their ease of integration into current systems using petroleum fuels due to their similarities e.g. cars can run on bio-ethanol or bio-diesel mixed with little or no modifications required, and these fuels can safely be mixed with conventional petrol as well. The feedstock for biofuel is very diverse and can utilize a range of biomass from food crops to waste material.

The current research being done in biofuel technology is very promising. The potential to utilize waste material to produce significant amounts of energy is emerging as is the use of crops that will not compete with the demand for food such as wheat.

Biofuel holds a lot of potential for the EU, especially if it can be incorporated with waste management strategies and utilize non-food crop feedstock. At the moment France, Sweden, and Germany from the EU along with Brazil and USA are the world leaders in biofuel technology (United Nations 2009), and further advances in technology will result in bio-fuels being even more economically viable and environmentally sustainable. They help in diversifying the energy supply, reducing dependence on potentially unreliable supplies of energy, and stimulating the economy as well. The newly established biofuel refinery in Britain has resulted in the creation of 2,000 new jobs, as well as 350,000 tonnes of high protein animals as by-products.

Among the emerging renewable energy-based emerging economies is Lithuania. The country already has a strong technical base in the field of biotechnology, which is proving to be an excellent base for biofuel production. The Lithuanian market is small and the market dynamics are such that as long as the cost of crude oil stays above USD70 per barrel, biofuel production will remain profitable and this is catalyzing the market in the wake of the last price hike in petroleum products (Kalnaitiene, 2006). The finite nature of fossil fuels and the imminent attainment of peak oil production is also attracting investment as a viable energy resource. It is also helping them gradually gain some independence from Russia in energy terms