Sustainability

Energy

Sustainable energy

Possible solutions

Action is possible at different levels.
To begin with, economically developed countries can reduce their energy production emissions in the following way:
• by improving the efficiency of combustion processes (less fuel burnt to obtain the same energy level) and reducing waste
• by implementing new technologies to “retain” pollutants and avoid their dispersion in the air
• by replacing the most polluting energy sources with other less polluting or not polluting at all sources (almost all renewable sources are included). Thus, the economic prosperity level of those countries would be unaffected whereas the environmental impact would be reduced.
Secondly, developing countries can be helped by teaching and allowing them to produce energy by means of state-of-the-art high efficiency and low environmental impact technologies.
However the problem of the long-term exhaustion of fossil fuel would remain unsolved. This is the real sustainability challenge for mankind, the solution of which can only be found in research and the large-scale implementation of clean renewable energy resources.