Energy and the Environment

This lesson covers the environmental impact of energy use and how to approach evaluation questions about energy resources, as required by the Edexcel GCSE Physics specification (1PH0), Topic 3: Conservation of Energy. You need to understand global energy demand, climate change, and how to evaluate energy policies in exam questions.

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Global Energy Demand

The world's energy demand is increasing for several reasons:

• Population growth — more people need more energy for heating, transport, industry and electricity.
• Economic development — as countries become wealthier, energy use per person increases (more appliances, cars, industry).
• Technological development — new technologies (computers, data centres, electric vehicles) require energy.
• Urbanisation — more people living in cities increases demand for electricity and transport.

Key Statistics

Fact	Detail
Global energy demand	Increasing by about 1–2% per year
Main source of global energy	Fossil fuels (about 80% of total energy)
Fastest-growing energy source	Solar and wind (renewable)
UK electricity from renewables	About 40–45% (and rising)

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Climate Change and Fossil Fuels