Question

Discuss the Energy problems you face in your locality​

Answer 1

Answer:

We live in an urbanising world occurring on the background of rapid population growth. Both these phenomena contribute to an ever-expanding and changing built environment, which draws heavily on the existing energy and resources. Today's buildings use about 40% of the world's energy and are responsible for nearly the same amount of carbon emissions – more than that in the transportation or industrial sectors (WBCSD 2009). Buildings are also highly dependent on finite resources that will be depleted in the near future with most of their energy coming from fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and gas – over 80% of world's energy comes from fossil fuels and a fair share of this goes into our buildings (EIA 2012).

Furthermore, energy is used throughout the life cycle of buildings. First, the construction materials that are used embody energy, since energy is needed for the extraction, manufacture and transport of raw materials. The modern building and construction sector is very steel, cement and glass intensive. All of these materials embody a considerable amount of energy – for example, steel can have 24 times the embodied energy of wood, while aluminium 124 times more (UN Habitat 2012). Second, energy is used in the construction phase of the project, as all the drilling machines, pumps, tractors, etc. need energy for their operation. Third, energy is needed for the use and maintenance of the building (in lighting, air conditioning and cleaning); in fact, the single largest use of energy in buildings has been attributed to heating and cooling – in 2012, 67% of the domestic energy consumption in the EU was for heating purposes alone (OECD 2013). Finally, energy is needed for demolishing the building and removing the debris.

All these global trends show how “energy hungry” our built environment is and, as a result, less resilient to problems related to energy security and energy price increases. This has a significant impact on the way we live our lives given the existence of three energy challenges: carbon mitigation (energy must be safe for the environment), energy security (energy should be secure for nation-states) and combating fuel poverty (energy should be affordable for all). This so-called energy trilema (WEC and Wyman 2012) has become today's dominant energy paradigm. It involves complex intertwined links between public and private actors; governments and regulators; economic, political, social and technological factors; national and local resources; combined with wider environmental concerns and patterns of individual behaviours. “No country is an energy island” (HoL 2013), however, in the absence of a universally accepted framework for energy policy, the ways these links are understood and pursued have important implications for energy in the “locality”.

First, it has become evident that carbon emissions derived from human activity and, in particular, energy consumption challenges the environment and the long-term stability of the climate, becoming a threat to life in many parts of the world. Renewable energy is on the agenda of many countries as a “clean” alternative to current energy production. However, renewable energy only accounted for 13% of world energy production in 2010 (OECD 2013) and its up-scaling and diffusion has proved challenging so far, especially starting from a local level up and across various spatial scales or “localities” (Rydin et al. 2012, Turcu and Rydin 2012, Devine-Wright and Wiersma 2013).

Second, it is evident that secure and sustainable energy is a requirement for the success of wider security and sustainability frameworks. And most developed countries, including the UK, have identified that such success relies on a multitude of technologies using both renewable and existing sources. This is often referredto as the “energy mix” or “energy diversity” which most countries see as a pre-condition for energy security.

Answer 2

The energy problem you face in your locality​ is Improper waste disposal

Explanation:

• Improper waste disposal is one of the important environmental problems in our locality.
• Disposal of waste has negative consequences on the environment.
• Dumping of electronic gadgets, improper littering, hazardous waste that is dumped into the ground
• Water, land and air pollution are caused due to improper waste disposal.
• It leads to the creation of an excess amount of greenhouse gases in the environment.
• Greenhouse gases are responsible for the increase in global warming.

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