The Energy Dilemma of the UK
Prepare and submit a term paper on The Energy Dilemma of the UK. Your paper should be a minimum of 2500 words in length. Will the UK be in a position to meet its energy needs from domestic sources in the years to come? Will the UK be able to sustain its energy production program successfully for a long period of time? Moreover, the energy security needs to be redefined in terms of climate protection policies and that is where the UK as a nation is on the threshold of a second dilemma. The transportation sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases and the UK’s commitment to meet EU guidelines poses a veritable energy dilemma for the country. The paper attempts to examine the proposition that the UK faces an energy dilemma in the above perspectives.The energy sector has a great influence on the UK economy. The energy industries’ contribution to the national economy stands at 4.4 percent of GDP in 2011. Its importance can be gauged from the fact that investment in the energy sector constituted a huge 51.8 percent of total industrial investment made in the UK in 2010. in terms of percentage of total investments, this comes out to be 10.1 percent in 2010. Furthermore, almost 7 percent of the industrial workforce is involved in only the energy sector of the UK (Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics 2012 p.12).The above table clearly demonstrates that the UK is facing its biggest dilemma on the production front. The total production of primary fuels went down by 13% in 2011 when compared with the numbers of 2010. The most unfortunate part is that after peaking in 2000, the production has gone down considerably. The sharp falls in oil and gas production are due to a number of maintenance issues as well as due to the fact that a number of oil and gas fields have now exhausted. When compared with the peak production levels of 2000, the primary fuel production has now reached to less than 50 percent of that (UK Energy in Brief 2012). It is obvious that the UK now meets its energy needs by imports. .
