Electricity
production from fossil fuels (mineral oil, natural gas and coal)
RD-5
Resource
Depletion
Pressure
1 Indicator
definition and unit of measurement
Total
amount of electricity produced from the fossil resources oil, coal, gas and
from uranium expressed in Gwh per year.
2 Placement
in the framework:
5EAP:
Partly
deals with natural resources in Chapter 5: The themes and targets of the
programme, section 5.3: Protection of nature and biodiversity, table 10. See
also Chapter 4: Selected target sectors, section 4.2: The energy sector.
Agenda
21:
Agenda
21 in many of its chapters calls for policies and actions in various areas,
that take into account the vulnerability and availability of natural resources,
and for an increased efficiency in the use of these resources
(e.g.
Chapter 4: Changing consumption patterns and Chapter 10: Integrated approach
to the planning and management of land resources ).
International
conventions and agreements:
Article
130 of the Treaty on the European Union (Maastricht, 1992) calls for prudent
and rational utilisation of natural resources. Energy saving and efficiency are
key priorities of European Parliament and Council. The Energy Protocol of
Lisbon (1994) calls for energy efficiency.
COM(97)
514 of 15.10.97 on a Community strategy to promote combined heat and power (CHP).
Ranking:
Core
Ranking:
5
(33%)
Policy
Relevance:
3
(3.3)
Analytical
Soundness:
1
(3.3)
Responsiveness:
7
(2.5)
Most
appropriate related state indicator:
The
total available stocks of fossil fuels, such as oil, gas, coal and uranium,
expressed in Terajoules.
3 Significance:
Purpose:
The
indicator represents the overall pressure on non renewable fossil resources for
the production of energy. The production of electricity is considered to be an
important pressure on fossil resources.
Relevance:
Electricity
production requires the use of non renewable resources such as coal, oil,
(natural) gas, uranium, of semi renewable resources such as biogas, wood,
waste, or of renewable resources such as water, wind and solar energy. The non
renewables form by far the most important resources for electricity production.
Therefore there is an almost direct relation between electricity production and
the use of fossil non-renewable resources.
Linkages
to other pressure indicators:
There
is a linkage with use of space because energy production installations occupy
space: RD-3 (Increase in territory permanently occupied by urbanisation;
infrastructure; waste-tippind and quarrying). There are linkages with the more
general indicators depicting the use of fossil resources for the production of
energy: RD-7 (Use of mineral oil as a fuel).
And
of course there is a linkage with RD-2 depicting the use of energy per capita.
There is also a linkage with AP-10: Electricity production.
Targets:
Reference
levels for this indicator can be derived from existing policy targets in the
field of energy use, energy efficiency and spatial planning. At EC level, codes
of conduct have been conducted in the electricity, coal, oil and natural gas
sectors (5EAP p.33).
COM(97)
514 of 15.10.97 sets a target of doubling CHP’s current share in
electricity production tally to 18% by 2010. If this target is met, total CO2
emissions of the EU are expected to decrease by around 4% in 12 years’
time.
4 Methodological
description and underlying definitions:
Underlying
definitions and concepts:
The
indicator includes the electricity produced from the fossil fuels coal, gas,
oil and uranium. The total use adequately reflects the results of energy
savings and increased efficiency. By a relating of production and stocks it
will become possible to estimate the tempo of depletion.
Measurement
methods:
The
indicator is measured in Gwh per year. The amounts of the electricity
production from the different resources have to be added up.
Limitations
of the indicator:
The
indicator does not allow for depicting the impact of policy on the switching
from nuclear power on resource depletion.
Alternative
definitions:
The
indicator could be restricted to the production of energy from the conventional
fossil resources oil, gas and coal.
