"It is unrealistic to expect individual nations to make, independently, the sacrifices necessary to conserve energy.
International leadership and worldwide cooperation are essential if we expect to protect the world’s energy resources
for future generations."
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons
and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
The notion of energy conservation by independent nations to protect critical resources may seem plausible at first. However, a closer look at this issue reveals that conservation by a handful of nations will not serve the purpose of protecting the world’s energy resources for future generations. Effort on a global scale is required to achieve this aim.
The first point is the fact that energy demands are different for different nations. Developed nations may have more demand for energy as compared to developing or under-developed nations. Now a developing nation may conserve its natural resources. However, this effort, although a step in the direction of energy conservation, may have little impact as the needs of this nation may be small to begin with. Compare this with the needs of a developed country and it evidently becomes clear that efforts on a global scale will have far-reaching effects in the journey towards energy conservation.
Another reason which bolsters a worldwide participation in protecting the resources is that fact that there are some influential nations which can play a very important role in convincing other nations to follow guidelines to conserve energy and resources. These nations can become a rallying point for other nations and this can very well lead to a global effort to conserve energy resources.
Perhaps a more practical reason would be considering the facts that individual nations have their own set of natural resources which are found in abundance in their respective regions. In order to efficiently conserve all the resources, worldwide cooperation is required which can be achieved via international leadership.
To summarize, conservation of energy by independent nations can at best be considered as a start towards a long journey, but in order for the goal to be met in the long term, worldwide cooperation coupled with international leadership is definitely required.