World Energy Conservation Day is celebrated on 14th December globally to highlight the importance of energy consumption and its use in our day-to-day lives, its scarcity and its impact on sustainability of global ecosystems. This day focuses on concentrating on significant issues that will be faced by mankind with respect to energy.
Energy conservation is an effort made to reduce the consumption of energy and to use at least energy so that energy sources can be saved for future uses. However, energy conservation is achievable either by using energy more efficiently or by reducing the amount of service usage.
Most of the energy sources that we use in our daily lives are ‘non-renewable’ and cannot be reused or renewed. It is said that our energy resources may last only for another 40 years or so.
Energy use is a major source of global warming, which has the potential of making the earth uninhabitable. We are all aware of the threatening fact that reserves of all conventional forms of energy are fast depleting. Everyday, the human population across the world uses energy for leading a civilized life. These resources are critical input of human development which comprises providing adequate food, shelter, clothing, water, sanitation, medication, schooling, transportation, industrial applications, access to information, etc. In short, energy affects all facets of activities related to everyday and modern life. Per capita energy consumption is often considered an important indicator of development.
Air conditioning may seem like the most convenient way for cooling the room temperature, however, the hazardous emissions from air conditioners leads to both personal health and global consequences. Air conditioners contain harmful refrigerants, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that harm the ozone layer. On the other hand, air coolers are eco-friendlier since they use water as the refrigerant. An air conditioner re-circulates the stale air of the room repeatedly, whereas an air cooler draws fresh air from outside and then cools the room with fresh, filtered air.
Today’s second-most-important source of energy, after fossil fuels, is biomass conversion. But all the world’s wood fires, all the grain alcohol added to gasoline, and all the agricultural wastes burned as fuel only provide 15% of the world’s energy. And biomass conversion has little growth potential, since it competes for fertile land with food crops and timber.
Hydropower furnishes about 5.5% of the energy currently consumed. Its potential may be as much as five times greater but this is not sufficient to take over from fossil fuels, and huge dams would submerge rich agricultural soils.
The production of electricity from nuclear fission has been increasing, but nuclear sources still supply only about 5.2% of the world’s total energy needs. Public confidence in all types of reactors is low, and the cost of their construction is high. These social constraints make it unlikely that fission’s contribution to the world’s energy needs will grow fifteen-fold in the next few years.
As per recent weather reports, 2020 has been the hottest year on record. With increasing temperature, human-led global warming, and lack of measures to safeguard the planet and its resources, we are jeopardizing the future of our generations. Irresponsible use of air conditioners is threatening the entire ecosystem.
While no single energy source is ready to take the place of fossil fuels, their diminishing availability may be offset by a regimen of conservation and a combination of alternative energy sources. This will not solve the problem, however. As long as population continues to grow, conservation is futile; at the present rate of growth (1.6% per year), even a 25% reduction in resource use would be obliterated in just over eighteen years. And the use of any combination of resources that permits continued population growth can only postpone the day of reckoning.
In India, Energy Conservation Act was implemented by the Energy Efficiency Bureau (BEE) in 2001. Energy Efficiency Bureau (BEE) is a constitutional body which works under the Government of India and helps in the development of policies and strategies to reduce the use of energy.
World Energy Conservation Day is a big opportunity to help in taking the following initiative: Being a civilized nation, we should focus on attention of decision makers (Government and Private sector) in directing resources towards energy generation through non-conventional sources on a larger scale.
