Global warming has become a hot topic nowadays with the growing amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The clock is ticking and we have a limited duration of time to make significant changes to our current way of life to avoid getting to a point of no return. We are already witnessing the multiplication of natural disasters not only here in the US but also around the globe. These will continue to worsen if timely action is not taken. An efficient transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is required to counter the problem. World leaders are in a dilemma of choosing between sustainability and keeping their economies competitive on the world stage.

In order to know where we need to get in terms of renewable energy production and how much is required to achieve that goal, an analysis of the current global situation and how we got here is necessary.

Various types of energy production sources will be mentioned and studied throughout this analysis:

• FOSSIL FUELS:

1) Anthracite Coal: A rare coal that contains a high level of carbon and is mainly used in the metal industry.

2)Bitumen Coal: The most common type of coal. It contains a medium to high level of carbon and is a major source of electricity.

3) Sub-bituminous Coal: A coal that contains a low to medium level of carbon.

• RENEWABLE ENERGY:

1) Geothermal Energy: It is the heat energy beneath the surface of the earth. The energy is harnessed to produce steam and run turbines.

2) Hydroelectric Power: Hydroelectricity is the oldest type of renewable energy. The flow of water/ its potential energy is used to run hydraulic turbines and generate electricity

3) Nuclear Energy: Heat is generated by splitting an atom of a radioactive material in a reactor. The heat is then used to generate steam. Although Nuclear Energy itself is renewable, the amount of uranium is finite.

4) Solar Energy: The heat and light from the Sun is harnessed using Solar Panels, and is then converted into an active source of power.

5) Wind Energy: Wind Energy uses the kinetic energy of the wind to run electric generators through wind turbines.

Global aggregate GDP as of 2020 is 83,220.21 million USD. The United States has a GDP of 21,400 billion USD and China has a GDP of 14,300 billion USD. These two countries make up about 25% and 17 % of the global GDP respectively and collectively account for 42% of the world's GDP. As the two dominant economic powers in the world today, they are far behind the world in revolutionizing our energy use. Notice the similarity between the GDP and fossil fuel energy producers in the visualizations below. This is due to the gap in the energy production efficiency of these two types of fuels . In fact, major economies that wish to remain competitive on a global scale tend to opt for fossil fuels as they are more energy efficient regardless of the environmental impact.

Since man began burning fossil fuels, CO2 emissions have been on the rise. CO2 collects in the upper atmosphere and traps infrared radiation from sun rays that are reflected off of the earths surface that would otherwise be lost out in space. These infrared waves heat up the earth's biosphere and ocean's where the majority of the heat is stored. Since the 90's, the US and China have been vying for the top spot as both the dominant economies in the world and the top CO2 emitters. Russia's emissions decreased constantly for a few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union as energy production and manufacturing were hit. China's emissions shot up significantly after it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. It has the largest share of the world's emissions since 2005.

Each sector of a national economy can be broken down into a source of emission. By far the largest source of CO2 emissions in all of the developed economies is the Energy Sector.

Since Edison won the battle for centralized energy distribution over the Westinghouse decentralized system at the turn of the 19th century, major economies have relied heavily centralized power plants for electricity generation. At that time, coal was used as the primary fuel to power the electric power plants. However, new sources of energy have been created such as Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Hydropower, Nuclear etc. to run power plants and produce electricity. The only problem is that our major "advanced" economies have not kept up with the required pace. The US still creates 69% of its electricity from the burning of fossil fuels while China creates 63% of electricity from fossil fuels.

At the same time, the two major economies of the world - the US and China - are the largest producers of fossil fuel. Not only these countries burning and immense amount of carbon fuels, they are also producing large volumes of them.

This is comparison to the "emerging" 3rd world economies who are showing a revolution in their energy production. Countries across Africa, South America and Southeast Asia are using a far greater share of renewable technology to power their economies since the 90's.

We draw the following key conclusions from the above chart:

1) The United States is the largest producer of Nuclear Energy in the world. It is also the largest user of Uranium in the world with a usage of about 19.1 metric tons in 2017

2) China is the largest producer of hydro electricity in the world. The Three Gorges Dam in China is the largest in the world with a capacity of 22,500 MW.

3) USA and Indonesia are the largest producers of Geothermal Energy. The large number of hot springs in these countries make an ideal environment to harness Geothermal Energy.

4) China and USA make up a large share of the Solar and Wind energy generated in the world. This is a result of installation of large scale Solar Panels, Windmills and other infrastructure in these countries.

CONCLUSION:

This analysis shows that there is still a lot of effort to be made to transition from fossil fuels to Renewable Energies. Emerging economies have increasingly embraced green energy production but the world leaders including the US, China and Europe are still far from achieving what is necessary to counter climate change. However, it takes more than government action to accomplish this transition. Everybody needs to do their part. Individuals can also have considerable impact by consuming energy judiciously, cutting unnecessary wastage, switching to electric vehicles or using public transport. While governments have to lead us down that path, individuals should still walk the walk.