14 DAY TRIAL // The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that, most likely, coal would remain the world's top energy source for the next couple of decades, until 2030. The report predicted continued increases in coal usage worldwide, but especially in non OPEC countries, such as China. By 2015, electrical current produced by burning coal will amount to some 44 percent of all energy produced worldwide. This trend will continue until 2030, when the IEA-predicted 23,141 terawatt-hours (TWH) cap will be reached.
In its World Energy Outlook 2008, among other things, the agency said that "Globally, coal-based electricity is projected to rise ... to almost 14,600 TWh by 2030, giving rise to significant increases in associated CO2 emissions." This can be nothing but bad news for the environment, especially considering the worsening situation in India, and Asia in general.
"Over the past few years, a large number of countries have expressed renewed interest in building nuclear power plants. Few governments, however, have taken concrete steps to build new reactors," the report said, in regard to the constant amounts of energy currently produced via nuclear reactions. However, critics to nuclear energy say that building more reactors is not the best way to go about averting global warming, but, instead, increased financial support for renewable energy could turn the wind, the sun, and Earth's own heat into reliable power sources.
IEA also announced that renewable energy would most probably rise in percentages, from 18 in 2006, to 23 by 2030. However, such a growth is too small to sustain the ever-increasing global energy demand. Yet, "Higher fossil fuel prices, increasing concerns over energy security and climate change are expected to encourage the development of renewable energy for electricity," the paper argued.
Ironically, by 2030, there will still be portions of non-OPEC countries, such as India and China, that will not benefit from electricity, not even on a daily basis. That is to say, while demand constantly increases in these countries, most power is required in a few selected locations, while entire areas are omitted from grid development plans.