Chapter One Economics Blog

Link: http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12236443

Summary
As humans around the world are constantly burning fossil fuels every day, the European Parliament’s industry and energy committee has recently agreed to invest more money in renewable energies and biofuels. The committee have supported an amended draft that aims at raising the renewable energies usage to 20% of Europe’s total energy usage by 2020. The draft, which is to distance Europe from relying on fossil fuel, also states that the transportation sector in Europe must be using at least 10% of their energy from sources besides fossil fuel by the same target date. To enforce that the mandatory targets will be met, there will be fines to a country if it is not meeting the target, however a country could also receive financial benefits if it is doing better than the standards. The amended draft also tries to combat one of the greatest global problems we have today—climate change.

Introductory Concept: Scarcity
The reason why Europe has approved the draft to invest in renewable energies is because the amount of fossil fuel and oil in the world is limited. Therefore fossil fuels are a scarce resource and scarcity is one of the major topics in chapter one. Fossil fuels are classified as a land resource, so the leaders and governments in the world must make reasonable decisions regarding on its use and consumption. Chapter one states that when a resource is diminishing, we must find alternatives to replace the resource. This relates to the article in that the European leaders are trying to switch to alternative energy sources and away from the declining supply of fossil fuel. If we keep using fossil fuels the way we are today to drive our cars, one day it will run out because there is only a limited amount of it.

Personal Reflection
From my point of view, not only will the draft help save the supply of fuels in the world, but could also make humans switch to a cleaner alternative—one that would not pollute the world as much. This would be a benefit for us in the future as we would have cleaner air to breathe in. This crucial decision made by the European leaders could influence Canada and other countries to set targets to put more renewable energies into our societies. Furthermore, with the oil prices so high, switching to renewable energy sources could save us a lot of money in the long run. We all need to separate ourselves from relying too much on fossil fuels to help save the environment and tackle climate change.

Economics

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