Fossil fuels have become essential for human society. Their consumption in terms of coal equivalent was about 1 billion metric tons in 1900 A.D. and about 3 billion metric tons in 1950 A.D. It jumped to about 12 billion metric tons by 1985-86. Electricity which we use largely comes from thermal power plants which consume more than half of the world’s total coal production.
Planes fly and trains, trucks, buses, cars etc. run on oil. Natural gas lights our kitchen stoves. We cannot imagine a life without fossil fuels. Hydro-electricity and nuclear power contributes only about 10-14% of the total global energy consumption. About 10-11% of energy comes from fuel wood and biomass. The rest, about 75-80% is contributed by fossil fuels.
In 1850 A.D. wood provided most of the energy required by mankind. Coal had replaced wood as the main source of energy by 1900 A.D. as 70-75% of the global demand was met with by coal, 2-3% by oil and natural gas and rest by fuel wood. Today, oil and natural gas provides the bulk of global energy requirement. The use of fuel wood and coal has declined.
About 10% of the requirement is met with by hydro-electricity and nuclear energy. It is expected that by 2000 A.D. about 40% of world’s energy requirement shall be fulfilled by oil, 20% by natural gas, 20% by coal, 10% by hydro-electricity and nuclear energy and about 10% by fuel wood. About 80% of world’s energy requirement shall still be met with by fossil fuels. Approximate per cent composition of global fuel use.
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The convenience of oil and its high energy content makes it the most important fuel of today. As the oil reserves in industrialized nations of the world are getting depleted there is no choice left but to import it from Middle East and Gulf countries which control a large portion of global oil supplies. Earlier cheap oil was available from these countries. Things were fine till early seventies.
However, the vulnerability of oil-based economy of Western world became apparent in 1973, when oil-exporting countries of the world imposed an embargo, demanding more prices for their product. This created a fuel shock. Another shock came in 1980 when OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) doubled the price of oil. This has led the world to think in terms of alternative sources of energy.