La biomasse, activité alternative au développement des zones rurales

II- The European situation : an economy énergovore, a rural world in change

The European energy dependence is a major problem in the development of the economic activity in Europe since the life and production costs depend on the cost of energy. Since the reform of the common agricultural policy, the rural world life under the sign of the change.

1- An impossible energy autonomy ?

The energy choices of the European Union are conditioned by the limits of its energy self-sufficiency and technologies available. Since the first oil crisis, the growth of the consumption of energy strongly increased the European economic growth parallel to. In spite of this progress, the needs increasing for the European Union run up against the lack of satisfactory domestic energy options. Europe of the 15 consumes much more than it cannot produce.

a) Energy dependence

The request for energy of the European Union increases since 1986 from 1 to 2% per annum^8(*). Reflection of the passage of an industrial economy to a saving in services, the stability of the consumption of industry is largely compensated by the rise of and the tertiary sector household consumption in electricity, transport and heat. European industry made progress of energy saving thanks to investments of modernization. It carried out an effort of disengagement with regard to oil, it accounts for 16% of the total power consumption of industry, and energy diversification in favor of natural gas and electricity. The radiant intensity^9(*) of this sector dropped by 23% between 1985 and 1998.

The households, the tertiary sector and transport are « hostages of hydrocarbons »^10(*). The domestic hearths and the tertiary sector represent the largest sector of

final consumption of energy in absolute terms. This sector knew, until now, a moderate growth (from 355 to 384 million tons oil equivalent between 1980 and 1998). This tendency involves on this market a consumption per capita higher. Indeed, 63% of the needs for the households are covered by hydrocarbons, without counting individual transport. They are the natural gas large-scale consumers (1/3 of gas consumed correspondent with 40% of the needs for the households) and meadows of 18% of consumed oil is by these households (1/4 of the needs).

Transport constitutes, them, a great part of uncertainty concerning the future power consumption. Market depend on oil, indeed, 98% of the market of transport depends on oil what is equivalent to 67% of the final request for energy, this sector knows a considerable growth of the request for energy. Between 1985 and 1998, this one passed from 203 to 298 million tons oil equivalent whereas the number of vehicles, private individuals and utilities, increased by 132 to 189 million, with in parallel the explosion of air transports. The radiant intensity of this sector in increased by 10% between 1985 and 1997. The growth of this sector should continue in the future of 2% during the next decade. Within the European Union, one envisages from here 2010, a growth of transport of passengers of 19% set out again mainly between the car (+16%) and the plane (+90%). The carriages of goods would have are accroîtrent of 38%. The efforts made by the car industry in accordance with the agreement made with the Commission to reduce the CO2 emissions for the private cars will contribute an important share in order to reduce these tendencies. But this progress will not be sufficient to reduce nor to stabilize the energy demand of transport.

The European Union consumed in 1998, 1436 million tons oil equivalent of all energies confused for a Community production of 753 million tons oil equivalent^11(*). Without a deceleration of the growth of consumption in the principal sectors of expansion which are transport and the domestic hearths and the tertiary sector, the energy dependence of the Union will continue to grow. The exhaustion of the resources of the North Sea and a withdrawal partial of the nuclear power, more or less accentuated, will do nothing but reinforce the phenomenon of long-term dependence. The European Union, even following widening and by including Norway there, will continue to have a rate of dependence of meadows of twenty points of percentage higher than that of today, i.e. of surroundings seventy percent.

* ⁸ Economic foundations for energy policy, European Commission, 1999

* ⁹ the radiant intensity is an indicator of consumption of energy reported to the GDP

* ¹⁰ Deliver green  for a Community strategy, «  Energy for the future  : renewable sources of energy  », European Commission, p 6

* ¹¹ ibid, p 6