INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AGAINST THE WORLD ENERGY PROBLEM

Energy is one of the key building blocks of sustainable development, since it has a deep linkage with all three dimensions of life, naming environmental, economic, social aspects, therefore it can be implied that development of sustainable energy system is crucial in all countries in the world. Nowadays, the world’s demands on energy are mostly fulfilled by unrenewable fuel coming from fossil fuel. . This essay will spesifically discuss some issues related to fossil-based fuel, the recent international cooperation to solve it, and the result of the cooperation.

The Problems Related to Fossil-based Fuel

            Fossil-based fuel has a deep linkage with problems occured in environmental aspects. Fossil-based energy is the main cause of today’s environmental pollution. Several compounds contained in the exhaust gas, such as NO_X and CO₂ has bad impact since it causes green hause effect, resulting in the ozon depletion and climate change resulting in global warming. Global warming causes some problem such as ice liquifaction in artic, disorder of ecosystem, as well as the climate change, etc. There are the critical problem, since it can endanger to sustainable human life. Some countries in all part of the suffer the some problem.

One among the idea to overcome problems related to energy utilization is through international cooperation to improve technology for producing renewable energy and developing more sustainable energy system in the world. It aims at establishing the efficient and secure use of energy and supplies that are reliable, affordable and less-polluting

The Recent International Cooperation Solving The Problem

International cooperation is the important feature to solve energy problem. Every  country commits alternative source of energy as solution to fossil-based fuel. Some researches that are sponsored by international foundations have been conducted to find promising renewable energy source. For example, this year ERA-NET Bioenergy calls for research proposal themed Clean Biomass Combution^[2]. The proposers have to involve 3 countries in Europe at minimum as the requirement. This research is aiming to solve energy-related problem. There are many similar collaboration researches are being conducted in other countries.

Further utilization of research findings in some developed countries is not a big problem, since they have a lot of financial supports. But in developing country, such as Indonesia, it needs some international foundations to support it. It can be seen that international organization (NGO or government organization), such as JICA (Japan), USAID (USA), or AUSAID (Australia), facilitated Indonesia to solve its energy problem. From the statements above it can be understood that international cooperation to solve energy problem, both on research area and the implementation, has been going on.

The Result of The International Cooperation

In some countries, research related to renewable energy has significant effect, not only on environmental aspect, but also on both of economic and social aspect. On contrary with nowadays, application of renewable energy will minimize of pollution, such as CO₂ ^[3] and reduce natural hazard.Renewable energy is cleaner, with less harmfull emissions than fossil fuels. It means that discovery of renewable energy can significantly contribute towards reducing dependency on fossil fuels. Therefore, promoting innovative renewable applications and reinforcing the renewable energy market will contribute to preservation of the ecosystem by reducing emissions at local and global levels.

There are many recent studies indicate the positive economic influence of the renewable energy system. One study commissioned by the Renewable Fuels Association in 2002^[4] indicates that establishing a 40-million gallon per year ethanol plant could provides 41 plant jobs and 694 other new jobs throughout the entire economy; expands the local economic base by $110.2-million per year; generates $1.2-million in new local taxes per year, and increases the local price of corn by 5-10 cents per bushel. World Resources Institute mentioned that there is a strong relationship is evident between per capita energy use and a number of social indicators (Human Development Index). At low levels of the HDI, dramatic improvements come with relatively small increases in energy use ^5].

The cooperation is not always carrying out some benefit in all part of the world, but it brings with it some drawbacks and challenges. An estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide lack access to electricity in developing countries^[6]. It means that international cooperation has not established apportionment sustainable energy yet in all part of the world. There are some challenges to begin sustainable energy in developing country. The immediate obstacle for many poor households and governments in developing countries is a lack of financial resources.  The most immediate energy priority for many developing countries is to expand access. In fact, providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable energy to those who currently have no access is widely viewed as critical for advancing other development objectives.  Moreover, where access to energy is lacking, other urgent human and societal needs are often unmet too, meaning that energy needs must compete with other priorities.

Conclusion

Renewable energy provide some benefits on environmental, economic, and social aspect. Unfortunately, sustainable energy system based on renewable energy has not been established in all part of the world. In the future, international cooperation should emphasis on establishing sustainable energy in developing country since it has a deep linkage with sustainable human life.

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*) This article was submitted on JAL Shcolarship Program 2009