Introduction
Energy plays a vital role in our modern society, underpinning the quality of life we enjoy. Whether in the domestic sector, industry and commerce or transport, its costant and uninterrupted availability is something we often take for granted. For vul-nerable consumers, this security can be a lifeline. In recent years, energy production and consumption has played an ever-increasing role. In the past decade or so,it has become increasingly obvious that the production and use of energy has significant environmental implications. This has led to a range of agreements in various international forums aimed at limiting further damage to the environment. It will be a major challenge to achieve a balance between the need, on the one hand, for economic growth and, on the other, the need to reduce the impact of energy-related emissions on the environment, since historically economic growth has
marched hand in hand with increased energy consumption. Ensuring secure, diverse and sustainable supplies of energy at competitive prices remains a key policy
objective of the United Kingdom Government.
The increasing importance of energy in modern life and the global growth of energy
consumption was the reason that appealed to me to examine in deep the energy
consumption of UK. In this project module I investigate principally the energy system of UK, including energy production and resources of the UK and the energy
use indicators, energy market and prices. I look at the international energy production and use and UK government energy policy and the role of energy in the economy. The present major report examines specifically energy consumption of the UK in different aspects and the relation between energy consumption and the environment. It provides the latest figures on energy production, energy use, foreign trade and prices of fuels and discusses the main trends in energy consumption of UK and of the world, conversion efficiencies and final energy consumption by sector.
Environmental objectives are becoming increasingly important. Climate change,
arising from man-made emissions to the atmosphere -mostly from energy use -
must be addressed. The acceleration in energy use around the world has led the
International Energy Agency to forecast an increase in world energy demand of
two-thirds by 2020. The task for governments is to match the need to protect the
environment with the demand for economic growth, which is close related with ris-
ing energy consumption. Analysing factors driving changes I tried to answer the
question about the future consumption of UK and integrated activities what must
focuss on creating and applying new solutions which achieve balanced improve-
ments to Britain’s energy, environmental and economic performance and thereby
contribute towards a sustainable future for UK’s citizens.
