Fossil fuel

ISSUES

Fossil fuels

83.6 millions barrels of oil are consumed daily (mb/d), an increase of 25% since 1990. According to the United Nations, oil consumption could reach 116 mb/d in 2030, 70% of it consumed by developing countries, 30% by China. According to experts, the peak of production was either reached in 2007 or will be reached in 5 to 25 years. The expected scarcity of black gold is reflected in its price hike, a barrel of oil reached the 100 dollar mark at the beginning of 2008. Gas consumption increased by 41% in 15 years and coal consumption by 92% compared to 1980. In 1996, China consumed its own production of hydrocarbons; in 2006, it imported 50% of its hydrocarbon consumption. As a result, in 200 years man will have burned a resource which took 400 million years to “come about.”
Producers and consumers
The Middle Eastern countries that are members of OPEC possess 81% of global oil reserves, and produce 43% of them. Saudi-Arab...

NEWS

Elgin platform gas leak plugged safely, says Total

UN talks take first steps on 2015 climate deal

France firm Total stops gas leak in Nigeria

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DEBATES

Greening the European Investment Bank

Manana Kochladze

Over the past four years, the European Investment Bank – the European Union’s house bank – has loaned €48 billion ($62 billion)...

Fossil fuel or modern slavery ?

Slavery is often approached with a similar outlook, based...

UNEP Ogoniland Oil Assessment Reveals Extent of Environmental Contamination and Threats to Human Health

The environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to...

FOCUS

2011, year of forests : Acid rain

In the 1970s and 1980s, tens of millions of hectares of forest in Canada and Europe were damaged by a phenomenon about which little was known at the time: acid rain. Even in France, notably in the Vosges Mountains, many trees were affected by this rain as acid as...

VIDEOS

15/05/2012	Apple powers the icloud using mountaintop removal coal from Duke Energy,...	05/04/2012	The feature documentary SHATTERED SKY premieres at the DC Environmental...
27/02/2012	As millions of pounds of explosives from mountaintop removal strip mining...	13/02/2012	The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since...

GREEN TIPS

Transition towns

Several dozen towns in England and now in the United States, Australia and New Zealand have set up a...

INDICATORS

Carbon dioxide emissions
Renewable energy in the energy mix
Total Primary Energy Supply

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