ENERGY SECURITY

Energy Security and Sustainability

Energy Security and Sustainability

Introduction

Sustainable development is the development that meets the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable development is a much broader concept than environmental protection, as it implies a concern for future generations and the health and integrity of the environment in the long term. Energy security is the ability of a country to use sufficient, timely, and competitive products that have a less impact on the environment. The national energy demand measured in decades and decades rather than years. Energy security has different contents depending on the availability of resources. The issues of energy scarcity and sustainability and how they in turn affect energy security are complex and have diverse origins.

Discussion

Energy Security and Sustainability

Energy security and sustainability are the crucial issues in the change economics and politics. Sustainable development implies a political struggle for control over the productive environment (Jordan, 2002, 155). It requires a redefinition of not just what to produce and how to produce, but also who produce and for what purposes (Cox, 2006, 136). For organizations involved in sustainable development projects in rural areas, the conflict centres around the control mechanisms political and economic power to the peasants, the people indigenous women and other disadvantaged minorities, and the use resources (Lélé and Norgaard, 1996, 365). Climate change is an issue whose relevance is to recognise only relatively recently (Marsden, 2003, 15). The reasons that the issue of climate change have dominated a lot of the focus on sustainability are the fact that it is quantifiable, something which is not the case for other environmental problems. The cause of climate change identifies, and a means to address it agrees upon by the international community.

The growing problem of energy scarcity is an issue of global making. As the most import dependent region, globally the situation cannot be addressed without first outlining the most important features of the global energy market. Despite the broad nature of the stated aims of sustainable development and sustainability, there are some that feel it does too much and others who feel it does too little because of the wrong focus. On the one hand, there are those who criticise it from a conservative and free market perspective and argue that man's ingenuity is sufficient to manage the abundant natural resources available to him and further that the aim of protecting a balance between one generation and the next is both unclear and mistaken. On the other hand, for 'Deep Ecology' followers it does not sufficiently challenge the current consumer culture and flawed in its focus on human activities rather than a more encompassing approach including the wider global environment t(Buttel, 2003, 1656).

The issues are by no means mutually dependent; however, they have some important overlaps. In order to effectively address these problems, it is vital to understand these overlaps. It is also important to recognise that, in some cases alleviating pressure on one issue could heighten pressure on the ...