Imagining a post-carbon Ireland Challenges and oppertunities in peak-oil

STUDENT
Course
Professor
University
City & State
Date
Challenges and opportunities with peak oil
Peak oil is a situation when oil reaches the maximum level of production (Forfás, 2006). The situation is likely to bring challenges as well as opportunities to Ireland which depends on oil for transport.
Overall Growth % Average annual growth % Quantity (ktoe) Shares %
1990 – 2016 2005 – 2016 ‘05 – ‘16 ‘10 – ‘16 2016 2005 2016 2005 2016
Fossil Fuels (Total) 47.2 -12.7 -1.2 -0.7 3.3 10,322 9,013 81.9 77.2
Coal -65.7 -40.3 -4.6 -3.9 -7.5 484 289 3.8 2.5
Peat -73.9 -27.8 -2.9 -4.1 -1.8 274 198 2.2 1.7
Oil 70.6 -17.8 -1.8 -1.0 3.9 8,196 6,740 65.0 57.7
Natural Gas 213.6 30.7 2.5 1.9 3.7 1,367 1,786 10.8 15.3
Renewables 294.9 122.6 7.5 4.8 1.5 191 426 1.5 3.6
Wastes (Non-Renewable) – – – 30.2 -5.2 0 42 0.0 0.4
Combustible Fuels (Total) 51.1 -10.4 -1.0 -0.5 3.1 10,505 9,412 83.3 80.6
Electricity 115.5 5.0 0.4 0.1 2.0 2,094 2,199 16.6 18.8
Total 61.1 -7.4 -0.7 -0.3 3.0 12,607 11,680 Total Weather Corrected 57.2 -8.1 -0.8 0.4 4.2 12,646 11,618 Table 1: Energy growth over the years
Oil peaking shall result to increase oil prices affecting other economies. This means spending less on importing other goods from those countries though they benefit from high oil prices hence destabilizing the world economy. These oil importing economies imbalance trade due to spending more on oil imports than what they are exporting (Chapter 28: Peak oil).
The in…