Climate Change: Human Relationships and Energy Demand in Norway - Essay Sample

Introduction

Climate change effects such as global warming pose a great threat to humanity. How humanity relates with each other describes their actions, experiences, and decisions (Shove & walker, 2014). This paper gives a brief and clear summary of how human relationship in affects energy demand. It also highlights technological measures put across by nations to help reduce the rate of environmental pollution. The last aspect is to narrow down the study to a specific region, that is, "Norway" and evaluate the measures that the Norwegian government has put forward in a bid to reduce environmental degradation by Co2 emissions.

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Industrial development is a key indicator for economic growth. Industries, factories, etc. are all human inventions (Walker, 2014). So, generally, human beings play a great part on matters pollution. The main resource in the running of these industries is energy. Energy is not only important in industries, but also a main contributor to human survival (Geels et al., 2018).

The problem arises when it comes to matters energy consumption and conservation. Many factors influence the amount of energy consumed in households, schools, offices, etc. Such factors are (1) relationship with friends and family: a research conducted to study domestic energy use found that, acts of intimacy, care, parenting, and friendship define to a great extent energy consumption in households. (2) Relationship with communities and agencies: an example, the relationship between landlords and tenants (Breukers et al., 2011). A landlord may regulate access to energy tariffs thus acting as barriers to the efficiency of energy in rental properties.

On the issue of environmental pollution, Co2 is the main contributor to the adverse climatic conditions challenging the globe today. The intergovernmental panel on climate change came up with a report, and in their report, the following was evident; (1) human activities are leading to global warming and as at the end of the 21st century, the planet could heat above 4oC (Bye et al., 2018). This rise in temperatures could have adverse effects on human population. (2) Also, the report showed that, through serious measure, the world temperature is maintainable at 2oC. (3) To maintain a global temperature of 2oC, the world should strive to maintain a global Co2 budget of about 1,000 Gt Co2 equation. But the current emission trend is not promising.

Looking at different sectors and their demand-side solutions, we will evaluate the measures put forward to control Co2 emissions by these sectors. Some of the sectors to discuss are the transport, food and agriculture, cities, and the building sectors (Creutzig et al., 2016). Urban areas exhibit various characteristics that influence Co2 emissions from the building and the transport sectors. Some of these factors are road configuration and buildings' geometric relationship; mix and distribution of land uses, public structures primary elements, green spaces inclusion, and the location of activities depending on place of destination or origin.

Now, let us briefly narrow down to a specific country and evaluate the measures she has put across in helping to reduce pollution (Middlemiss et al., 2019). Norway, which has a stable industrial development and a promising economic growth has shown commitment new 2030 climatic policies that are in line with the EU. The main EU's goal is to lower the carbon levels in the society by the year 2030 (De Cian et al., 2007).

To meet their target, the EU set the following goals, (1) abate greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40%, (2) increasing renewable energy share by approximately 27%, (3) energy efficiency raise by 27%. The contributions made by include, the energy potentials and future costs of energy integration determines cost of investing in more improved energy, and in an economic perspective, house hold investments and energy rebound effects are put into consideration.

Conclusion

From the research, human beings are the key contributors to global pollution. Human activities such as transport, industrialization, building, etc. cause great impact on the environment due to their high levels of Co2 emissions. Different agencies have come up with measures of reducing pollution but still a threat dares the world. From the writer's perspective, the points are inexhaustible and I recommend for that any future researchers to further this study on detail.

References

Breukers, S. C., Heiskanen, E., Brohmann, B., Mourik, R. M., & Feenstra, C. F. J. (2011). Connecting research to practice to improve energy demand-side management (DSM). Energy, 36(4), 2176-2185.

Bye, B., Faehn, T., & Rosnes, O. (2018). Residential energy efficiency policies: Costs, emissions and rebound effects. Energy, 143, 191-201.

Creutzig, F., Fernandez, B., Haberl, H., Khosla, R., Mulugetta, Y., & Seto, K. C. (2016). Beyond technology: demand-side solutions for climate change mitigation. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41, 173-198.

De Cian, E., Lanzi, E., & Roson, R. (2007). The impact of temperature change on energy demand: a dynamic panel analysis.

Geels, F. W., Schwanen, T., Sorrell, S., Jenkins, K., & Sovacool, B. K. (2018). Reducing energy demand through low carbon innovation: A sociotechnical transitions perspective and thirteen research debates. Energy research & social science, 40, 23-35.

Middlemiss, L., Ambrosio-Albala, P., Emmel, N., Gillard, R., Gilbertson, J., Hargreaves, T., ... & Tod, A. (2019). Energy poverty and social relations: A capabilities approach. Energy research & social science, 55, 227-235.

Shove, E., & Walker, G. (2014). What is energy for? Social practice and energy demand. Theory, Culture & Society, 31(5), 41-58.

Walker, G. (2014). The dynamics of energy demand: Change, rhythm and synchronicity. Energy Research & Social Science, 1, 49-55.