Energy supply, its demand and security issues for developed and emerging economies
M. Asif, T. Muneer

We require energy to charge our mobile phones, to cook our food and even for our daily commute. In essence, energy is the key to survival.

With the world population steadily increasing, it is imperative that new sources of energy would have to be found to replace fossil fuels – the dominating energy resource over the course of human history. In fact, it isn’t just searching for sources that should be of concern to humanity. Rather, finding a more efficient means to exploit the energy systems that are available to us, making it cleaner and greener.

Looking back at history, since the 1800s, where the population was estimated to be approximately 1 billion, to the modern age, our energy consumption has seen an approximate 20-fold increase. This figure is far in excess of the increase in global population and really opens our eyes to the reality of our energy resource crisis.

Currently, the 3 known energy resources are fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewable energy, which can further be broken down into specifics such as wind power, solar energy, hydropower, biomass energy and geothermal energy. While fossil fuels are rapidly being depleted, and the many complications that nuclear power brings about, the solution that makes the most sense would be to exploit the abundance of renewable energy sources around us with the technology we have at our disposal in this day and age.

Apart from the depletion of fossil fuel reserves, issues related to global warming as well as rising energy costs should be taken into consideration as well. It is for these factors that a sense of urgency is required to find better ways of implementing the use of renewable energy sources into our everyday life.

The 5 countries identified in this article, namely China, India,