User Manual

5
2 Global situation: energy and climate
In this section, we discuss the global energy and climate situation as well as future perspectives on
improving the situation.
2.1. CO
2
-emissions and global climate
The global demand for energy has increased dramatically over the past decade and is likely to
continue according to forecasts. Within the percentage of fossil fuels, oil is likely to stagnate or even
decline in the future, while natural gas and coal are projected to increase significantly.
Global CO
2
emissions are developing in sync with the increased consumption of fossil fuels. They
have strongly increased since 1970 and will continue to do so.
The impact of CO
2
emissions is already unmistakable: The average air temperature is continuously
increasing over the long term; weather dynamics are increasing dramatically.