Environmental Issues and Technical Options for Sustainability

Running head: ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY
ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY
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ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY
1. Provide the range of environmental issues potentially arising from electricity supply
and use, and methods for assessing them
It has been found that global buildings are responsible for approximately consuming 40
per cent of the total world annual energy. This energy is used for the provision of heating,
cooling, lighting and air conditioning. The environmental damage that arise from the energy and
electricity supply include the occupational illness and the injuries in the energy supply industries,
injuries and public illness caused due to the effluents and the accidents concomitant with the
energy supply. In addition, there is immense damage caused to the human health, well-being of
the individuals and the safety issues that is associated with the ecological disruption and the
climatological processes and the conditions (Elliott 2012). Another problem that emerges due to
the supply of electricity and energy can be attributed to the social and the political conditions
along with the biogeophysical ones that demand another category of damages, and the social and
the political disruptions that are concomitant to the energy supply. It has been found that no
energy technology is potentially free from the environmental hazards. Secondly, it has been
found that the quantification of the external agents of the environment costs and is the residual
damages and the risks that arise after the control and it becomes difficult to conceptualize. There
is a great pressure on the human welfare that would improve the greatest impact of the human
welfare that would be associated with category of damages (Schweizer-Ries 2008). It has been
found that all energy sources have drawback from the perspective of the environment (Griggs et
al. 2013). Exploitation of the source of energy can culminate to undesirable and damaging by-
products that would drive the supply down of the other products. It is true that irrespective of the
safety measures, hazards will exist and there will be high chance for the occurrence of accidents.
The two worst forms of energy sources that have been identified are coal and biomass. The

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ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY
burning coal, the wood, or the residual product liberates harmful gases into the atmosphere.
These gases are carbon dioxides, nitrous oxides, sulphur oxides and other impurities poses health
problems for the individuals. It has been reported that 70 per cent of the dust smoke emission, 67
per cent of the nitrogen oxide, 70 per cent of the carbon dioxide in China can be attributed to the
coal emission (Holden, Linnerud and Banister 2017). It has been found that during the act of coal
burning, mercury is liberated into the atmosphere and the mercury would enter the environment
as industrial air pollution from the factories once the coal is burnt. Since this is a global
pollutant, it disperses the pollutant in the globe that influences the five continents. It has been
found that the third of the US’s lakes were destroyed. The global environment degradation can
be attributed to the rise in the greenhouse gases that is more particularly to do with Carbon
dioxide (CO2) that makes it for the large contribution to the global warming. Co2 is liberated into
the environment and the fossil fuel is combusted for the use of energy. Among the different types
of fossil fuel present in the atmosphere coal is found to be responsible for releasing the Co2 into
the atmosphere and therefore contributes to the highest amount to global warming (Field and
Barros 2014). There has been a severe effect of the increase in the numerous and well-known
influence on the health of the human beings. In addition, it poses pressure on the forest
resources, water resources, coastal areas, natural areas and the agriculture. There is evident
regional pollution that is embodied in the acid rain that takes place when the SO2and the NOx
that are fused in the air and create acidic compounds that are taken into the atmosphere. Acid
deposition have been identified as the potential environmental problem that can jeopardize the
lives of the biological means.

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ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY
3. Describe technical options for addressing key environmental and wider sustainability
issues, in particular, the challenges of climate change
The policymakers need to understand the areas where they would need to make the
necessary amendments and seek solutions on what can be done in the present situation.
Improvements in the environment are related to the pricing incentives or the regulatory
intervention. There are regulations in the usage of water by reducing the amount of water that is
wasted. The recent incident concerning the reduction of water has been found to be most
pronounced in the countries that have eliminated their subsidies for the usage of water and the
applied charges on water so as to promote the culture of more careful water usage. The main
reductions in energy intensity are related to the OECD economies, marginal costs and the water
supply. The main reductions in the energy are not driven by the environmental policy that have
taken place during the major oil price shocks of the 1970s when there was an increase in the
price of energy. It has been found that the government regulations and the restrictions have the
potential in successfully minimizing the levels of the air pollutants, industrial pollution, cleaning
up the polluted surfaces and in phasing out of the CFCs. Direct intervention by the government
has been found to be useful in increasing the size and the number of natural areas in the OECD
countries. That have conserved or they have restricted on the use, protecting the ecosystem along
with the biodiversity. The government policies have the potential to facilitate changes that are
compatible for the environment and in other consumption patterns. This is true for developing
the organic agriculture and the environmentally sustainable agricultural practices along with the
rapid growth of which the OECD countries is partly due to the greater consumer demand and
also to the government support (Elliot 2012). There is a growing public access to the
environmental concern and the policy-making process that can influence individual consumption