FACULTY BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS (ECO646)

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
CASE STUDY

THE IMPACT OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION ON THE

ENVIRONMENT: A CASE STUDY IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES

PREPARED BY : RABIATUL ADAWIYAH BINTI MOHD SOFI

MATRIK NO : 2018299898
CLASS : KBA2505C
PREPARED FOR : DR HAFIZAH HAMMAD AHMAD KHAN
DATE : 8th December 2020
 TABLE OF CONTENT

No. Content Page

1 Introduction 1
2 Background 1
3 Main Discussion 2
4 Conclusion 4

5 Appendices 4

6 References 6
 1. INTRODUCTION
Energy consumption is the amount of energy that used to perform an action by individual,
companies, countries and others. For example, in a factory, total energy consumption can be measured by
calculating on how much energy a production process needed such as a production on van. This will include
an energy source like water, electricity, oil, gas and others.
Energy sources can be separate into two which is nonrenewable energies and renewable energies.
Nonrenewable energies are resources that are not replaced or can be replaced but with slow process by
natural processes such as oil, fossil fuel, gas and others. However, in this recent year, there has been an
increased on various used of renewable energy sources which is solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy
and many more where it is replaceable in a short time scale. However, all energy sources will have impact
on our environment.
This day, environmental problems spread in wider area and the range of pollutants, hazards and
ecosystem degradation continues to expand. The problem of energy supply is not only involved the global
warming but also other environmental issues like air pollution, acid deposition, forest destruction and
radioactive emissions. Hence, it is important to considered these issues if humanity want to reach a better
energy future with less environmental impacts.
2. BACKGROUND
Developed countries continue to consume large amounts of energy, while the demand in developing
countries is increasing. A lot of energy needed for bigger user is expected for economic growth to as
measured by gross domestic product, urbanization and population growth. This is because of population
growth and improvement of standard living. Hence the need of energy demand will increase as people will
need more energy to meet basic needs like mobility, lighting and productive processes. Example of
developing countries are India, Africa, Qatar, Russia and Costa Rica.

Figure 1Total carbon dioxide emissions from consumption of energy in the world during 1999-2015

India is the one of the largest electricity produce and is rapidly expanding. In 2017, India has
concurred a quarter of global electricity demand growth and their consumption might be triple by 2040.
They also one of the largest producers of carbon dioxide as their major used of fossil fuels are coal, natural
gas, refined oil and crude petroleum. While Qatar on the other hand is a major producer and exporter of
natural gas, oil and oil products. According to National Geographic, Qatar is called as “liquid electricity”
because their population are provided with free electricity and water and other produced through

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desalination. However, their per capita emissions are the highest due to liquefied natural gas and they have
small population compared to other countries.

Figure 2 Recent trends in Indian Electricity system

Another developing country is Sub-Saharan Africa where they consume almost 50% of energy that
provided by biomass because of rapid urbanization with excessive use of biomass. This also has leads to
deforestation and land degradation where cause an increase of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants.
On the other hand, developing countries from Europe and Eurasia group especially Russia are expected to
has slowest energy use since they have low population and economic growth. Russian energy balance is
influence by fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal. Before the economic crisis in 2009, Russia use to be
one of the world leaders in terms of GDP energy intensity reduction, however, they started to slowed and
even reversed since then.
Lastly, Costa Rica where they have over 90% of total output of nation’s renewable energy. The
country has a massive investment in windmill technologies where making them the world leader in
renewable use. Their government goal is to become the world’s first carbon neutral country as in March
2015, the country has running over 75 days on 100% renewable energy.
3. MAIN DISCUSSION
In turkey, a study by Atilgan, B., & Azapagic, A. (2015) that want to estimate the life cycle
environmental impacts of fossil fuel electricity found that electricity from gas has lower impacts compare
to power from lignite and hard coal. However, the ozone layer depletion potential (ODP) from gas
electricity is higher for gas compared to lignite and hard coal. This environmental impact usually happened
during the operation of power plants and transportation of fuel. In addition, the result proved that by
decrease the use of lignite and hard coal power, Turkey’s electricity sector can reduce the environmental
impact including greenhouse gas emissions. However, this may increase the ozone layer depletion.

Another study to estimate the life cycle environmental impacts of fossil fuel in Chile by Gaete-
Morales, C., Gallego-Schmid, A., Stamford, L., & Azapagic, A. (2019) show that the coal power has bad
impact on environmental compared to gas. however, oil is worser than coal for photochemical oxidants and
depletion of elements and ozone layer. On top of that, the study shows that the environmental performance
of fossil-based electricity in Chile has getting worse over time because of growing share of coal power with
the increasing electricity demand. This can be proved as the annual environmental impacts had doubled
since 2004 until 2014 where the highest impact mainly caused by the high contribution of coal power.

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 It is important to find other alternative of energy consumption since fossil fuels cause a lot of
damage to our environmental plus with the shortage of oil in the future. According to De Oliveira, F. C., &
Coelho, S. T. (2017), Brazil had introduced flex-fuel technology (ethanol gasoline) to improve air quality
in 2002. This can be said that biodiesel can be another alternative to upgrade our air quality as it can be
used in transportation sector and recreational vehicles. One of the positive impacts of biodiesel mention in
the article is that it can reduce the carbon dioxide emission in the atmosphere. However, since biodiesel is
made from raw material such as soy based and beef, it might have impact to environment which related to
land use. Soy based biodiesel also has an intensive use of pesticides, herbicides which another form of
direct pollution to environment.
Wind power is environmentally sustainable if compare to fossil fuels, however it still has bad
impact on environment according to case study about environmental and social impacts of wind energy
with reference to India by Gawande, A., & Chaudhry, P. (2019). For example, the installation of windmill
has changed the wildlife sanctuary and has bad impacted on the ecology as 500 trees have been cut in Navja
village. This has resulted in reduction of endangered species of bird like red-headed vulture and white stork.
On top of that, giant wind farms can change the air temperatures where it warms the surface temperature
during night but cool during daytime. Besides, wind power also can impact on socio economic where it can
cause noise pollution, shadow flicker and community land issues. At last, the – concluded that wind energy
system is clean and green renewable source of energy but it also has a potential negative impact on
environment in the future.
On the other side, improved energy conversion and consumption are required to reduce the
environmental load of energy usage as said by Olaniran, J. A., Jekayinfa, S. O., and Adekanye, T. A. (2020)
in their case study about energy consumption and environmental burden analysis of cassava tuber
production in Ogbomoso southwest Nigeria. The aim of the study was to identified and quantified the
environmental burden in energy consumption of cassava cultivation production and considered possible
efforts at reducing the impact. Production process of cassava involve the use of resources in form of fossil
fuels, pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer which will release emission and waste pollutant into environment.
The study found out that the environmental impacts associated with cassava production include global
warming potential (GWP) (8.025E+01 kg CO2 equiv.), acidification potential (AP) (1.8892E-02 kg SO2
equiv), eutrophication potential (EP) (6.7375E-01 kg NO3 equiv.), and ozone layer depletion potentials
(OLDP) (2.9981E-04 kg RII equiv.) which can be said that as an energy crop, the production of cassava
does give a bad impact on the environment.
According to Shahsavari, A., & Akbari, M. (2018) exploitation of energy sources may have some
negative impacts on the environment. Some of energies discuss in the study are burning coal where the
impact to the environment is same to burning oil, natural gas and biomass as there can contributed to air
pollutant that may root to negative impact on human, plants and animals. Next is nuclear power where the
emissions are lower that fossil fuels but the dumping of radioactive material can cause damage the
surrounding environment. Another energy is hydropower, where the impact is it can change the river
characteristics, chemistry, temperature and silt loads while affected the natural habitats in the dam area.
Hence, the Shahsavari, A., & Akbari, M. suggested for developing countries to utilize the solar
energy as it is sustainable which means it is among the secure sources of energy available compare to other
renewable energy sources. In addition, solar energy has least contribution to global warming emission while
helping mitigate the effects of climate change. Furthermore, solar energy can be use in various fields such
as electricity production, solar energy for cooking, solar water heater, solar air collectors and many more.

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 4. CONCLUSION
Growing population and increasing standard of living in developing countries is the cause of more
demand on energy resources. This will directly or indirectly affect the environment especially carbon
dioxide emissions and air pollution. Ensuring secure and affordable access to modern energy resources is
crucial for sustainability. This case study highlights the impact of energy consumption on environment
which show most of the negative impacts of energy usage that will become worst in the future if they are
no alternative on our energy resources. Hence, every developing country should frame some policies that
considering sustainable economic development. They should also discover substitutable source of energy
by making investment in research and development and through international associations. This is also the
right time for government to create awareness about renewable energy to people and encourage to use
technology that have less harm to our environment.
5. APPENDICES

NO REF COUNTR OBJECTIVE METHOD FINDINGS

Y/ YEAR USED
COVERE
D/ TYPE

1 Atilgan, B., & Turkey To estimate the LCA data The results suggest that
Azapagic, A. life cycle electricity generation from
(2015). Life 2010 environmental Theoretical gas has the lowest impacts
cycle and
impacts of for 10 out of 11 impacts
environmental empirical
impacts of electricity considered. However, its
generation from studies ozone layer depletion is 48
electricity
from fossil fossil fuel power times higher than for lignite
Data
fuels in plants in Turkey and 12 times greater than for
assumption
Turkey. hard coal electricity.
Journal of s
Cleaner
Production,
106, 555-564.

(scorpus)
2 De Oliveira, F. Brazil to review the Theoretical The review showed that the
C., & Coelho, literature on the and domestic biodiesel in Brazil
S. T. (2017). history, evolution, empirical production has grown
History, studies
and the considerably, from 736 m3 in
evolution, and
environmental environmental 2005, to 3.4 million cubic
impact of aspects of meters in 2014. Hence, the
biodiesel in biodiesel in Brazil incentive to the production
Brazil: A and consumption of biodiesel
review. in Brazil can represent
Renewable economic and environmental
and
advantages, as the country
Sustainable
Energy will be able to replace the

4
 Reviews, 75, imported fossil diesel by the
168-179. locally produced biodiesel

(scopus)

3 Gaete- Chile To evaluate the LCA data the results found that
Morales, C., environmental electricity from gas has the
Gallego- 2004 – impacts of Theoretical lowest impacts for all 11
Schmid, A., 2014 and impact categories considered
electricity
Stamford, L., empirical
& Azapagic, generated from
fossil fuels in studies
A. (2019). Life
cycle Chile
Primary
environmental
data
impacts of
electricity
from fossil
fuels in Chile
over a ten-year
period. Journal
of Cleaner
Production,
232, 1499-
1512.
4 Gawande, A., India This study is Theoretical Although wind power is
& Chaudhry, expected to and believed to be
P. (2019). synthesizing empirical environmentally benign,
Environmental
information about studies compared to conventional
and social
impacts of the environmental fossil fuels, it still has bad
wind energy: a and social impacts effects on animals and on
view point of the wind power human life.
with reference projects
to India.
Ecological
Questions,
30(2), 39-46.
5 Olaniran, J. Southwest The study Study The results obtained
A., Jekayinfa, Nigeria identified and Location established cassava tuber as
S. O., & quantified the and Data energy crop, and it
Adekanye, T. Collection
environmental production has negative
A. (2020).
Energy burden in energy impact on the environment.
consumption of Life cycle
consumption
cassava Assessment
and
environmental cultivation Model

5
 burden production and Emission
analysis of considered and
cassava tuber possible efforts at environmen
production in
reducing the tal impact
Ogbomoso
southwest impact. calculation
Nigeria.
E&ES, 445(1),
012062.
6 Shahsavari, Developing To reviews the Theoretical Solar energy has a good
A., & Akbari, countries sources of energy- and potential for overcome
M. (2018). related emissions, empirical energy poverty issues.
Potential of studies
risks of climate
solar energy in
developing change, global
countries for solar energy
reducing potential,
energy-related sustainability
emissions. Ren indicators of
ewable and renewable
Sustainable
energies,
Energy
Reviews, 90, environmental
275-291. impacts of fossil
fuels and
renewable
energies, benefits
of solar energy
utilization and
discusses barriers
to widespread use
of solar energy.

6. REFERENCES

1. Andrew Topf. (2014). The World’s 10 Biggest Energy Gluttons. Nasdaq. Oilprice.com.
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/the-worlds-10-biggest-energy-gluttons-2014-09-30
2. Ashwini K. Swain. (2019) India’s Next Generation of Electricity Priorities. Energy for
Growth Hub. https://www.energyforgrowth.org/memo/indias-next-generation-of-electricity-
priorities/
3. Atilgan, B., & Azapagic, A. (2015). Life cycle environmental impacts of electricity from
fossil fuels in Turkey. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, 555-564.
4. Cristina Teba (2018) What is energy consumption? - ABCs of Energy Efficiency - DEXMA.
Dexma.com. (2020). https://www.dexma.com/blog-en/energy-consumption-definition/

6
5. De Oliveira, F. C., & Coelho, S. T. (2017). History, evolution, and environmental impact of
biodiesel in Brazil: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 75, 168-179.
6. Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy Technologies. Union of Concerned Scientists.
(2020). https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/environmental-impacts-renewable-energy-
technologies#:~:text=All%20energy%20sources%20have%20some,use%2C%20and%20glob
al%20warming%20emissions
7. Gaete-Morales, C., Gallego-Schmid, A., Stamford, L., & Azapagic, A. (2019). Life cycle
environmental impacts of electricity from fossil fuels in Chile over a ten-year period. Journal
of Cleaner Production, 232, 1499-1512.
8. Gawande, A., & Chaudhry, P. (2019). Environmental and social impacts of wind energy: a
view point with reference to India. Ecological Questions, 30(2), 39-46.
9. Mitrova, T., & Melnikov, Y. (2019). Energy transition in Russia. Energy Transitions, 3(1-2),
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environmental burden analysis of cassava tuber production in Ogbomoso southwest Nigeria.
E&ES, 445(1), 012062.
11. Renewable energy in developing countries. Wikipedia. (2020, November 29).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_developing_countries
12. Shahsavari, A., & Akbari, M. (2018). Potential of solar energy in developing countries for
reducing energy-related emissions. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 90, 275-291