Energy Technologies, Politics, and Global Climate Change

The Kyoto Protocol addresses reducing production of dangerous greenhouse gases that affect global climate change. Internationally, oil, coal, and natural gas make up more than 85% of energy production sources and directly contribute to carbon dioxide and greenhouse production. Even if emissions from these energy sources stopped today, their effects would still be felt for some time. Greenhouse gas production, however, will not stop today. Despite the Kyoto agreement, use of fossil fuels remains the norm in developed countries and is rapidly increasing in developing countries.

Under the current U.S. administration, energy policy focuses on increased use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil and continues to produce greenhouse gases that affect global warming. As seen in the chart below, the U.S. produces an incredible one-fourth of energy-related carbon dioxide emission in the world.

Fossil fuel industries have a long history of political involvement. In 2003, the U.S. Secretary of Energy gave a speech explaining that quiet diplomacy, or communicating privately with OPEC during difficult economic times, has saved the U.S. from expensive energy shortages. Vice President Cheney’s current policy was developed behind closed doors, but has been criticized for including only energy industry representative opinions rather than citizen participation. Focusing on energy independence, large subsidies have recently been allotted to improving and constructing new nuclear facilities. Nuclear power provides the benefit of reducing fossil fuel emissions and therefore impacts on global climate change, but it also poses nuclear hazards.

To compare domestic policy strategies and the technologies that they employ, click on these links:

Historically, many nations’ economies have grown due to energy use in industrialization. The U.S. is a top producer of its own coal, but domestic oil and gas reserves are limited. The oil crises of 1973 and 1979 affected U.S. politics and economies, and, therefore, emphasis was turned toward research and development of new energy technologies. Renewable sources of energy have long been used and explored, but such events encourage further government. Likewise, the 1979 revolution in Iran, the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and the 2003 U.S. war on Iraq all intricately connected with politics, the economy, and energy use. As fossil fuels are not distributed evenly around the globe, controversy over their exchange can result in political turmoil.

In considering solutions to global warming, politics play an important role. Key points for international technological solutions cited in the Kyoto Protocol include technology transfer, enhancement of energy efficiency, and research on and promotion of renewable energy sources. Some countries have already taken steps toward these goals, whether to find political independence, to develop marketable technologies, or to reduce environmental impacts. Many countries have implemented or are currently implementing renewable portfolio standards that require certain percentages of energy to be produced from diverse renewable sources such as solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, oceanic, and others.

Iceland, for example, produces 99% of its electricity through renewable energy. Success for renewable energy policies in Germany, Denmark, and Japan has resulted from more coordinated and consistent national policy efforts than complex systems found in countries like the U.S. and the Netherlands.

Experts agree that a variety of energy sources must be implemented during a transition period toward cleaner energy sources. Renewable energy sources currently make up a very small percentage of energy production but are growing rapidly. U.S. electricity production only includes 2.3% non-hydroelectric renewables.