Uploaded on 2015-10-30 by ricardoavella

But we also have an important natural gas production (25 Mtoe in 2012). 100% of that production is used within our borders, but only 54% of that natural gas production **(13.62 Mtoe)** is for final consumption. ![https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14461594574609038.jpg][1] IEA Sankey Diagram of the flows of energy in Venezuela (2012 balance) http://www.iea.org/sankey/#?c=Venezuela&s=Balance ![https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14461617099366296.jpg][2] IEA Sankey Diagram of the flows of energy in Venezuela (2012 final consumption) http://www.iea.org/sankey/#?c=Venezuela&s=Final consumption **Q2. Where are the dominant fossil fuels mainly used for in your country?** In Venezuela, oil is mainly used for transportation. Out of the 29.8 Mtoe of oil we consume internally, **60.3%** is used for transportation (almost 18 Mtoe), and **29.5%** is used for the national industry (8.8 Mtoe). ![https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/1446162783190368.jpg][3] Natural Gas is used mainly for the national industry. Actually, **91%** of the natural gas we consume internally goes to that specifical sector **(12.4 Mtoe)**. ![https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14461628884804118.jpg][4] **Q3. It is your task to create a new policy in order to improve the environmental friendly and sustainable sources and consumption of energy of your country. How would you do that? Think of how you can improve the sources and the consumption of energy.** I believe that our problem relies not only in our dependence to oil production, but in the way the different goverments have always seen the "oil problem". Our oil dependent economy has given an opportunity to populist goverments to make poor decisions when distributing the oil exports revenue. With votes and power in mind, they prefer to spend the money in social programs instead of investing in more long-term objectives, such as energy generation alternatives, planned urbanization, etc. Also, the venezuelan government has always thought that since we produce oil, we can subsidize fuel for transportation in ridiculous prices. Let me explain myself... I CAN FILL UP MY TANK WITH 0.015 USD.... conlcusion: fuel for transportation is FREE in Venezuela. This reality, of course, promotes individual transportation and excess of private vehicles in the cities. Public transportation is very poor throughout the country... So... since oil is the main fossil fuel used in my country, and since it is mainly used for transportation, I believe we could start with 3 very simple policies: 1. We should stop subsidizing fuel, or at least we shouldn't sell it at those RIDICULOUS prices. This would not only reduce the flow of private vehicles in the city, but it will substantially improve the economy of the country. 2. We should seriously improve the public transportation system in the country. Railways should connect the whole territory, as they do in Europe. Every city should have diverse and decent public transportation options, in sufficient amounts, so that the can start to represent a real alternative to the citizens. Also, public transportation should have their own lanes in the streets, like in Curitiba or many european cities, so that the public transportation vehicle arrives faster to its destination than its private counterpart. 3. Finally, I would promote other ways of transportation (bikes, pedestrian, subways, funiculars for the mountains...), to help reduce the use of private transportation in the cities. I belive that this would be a nice start to reduce at least by 30% the use of fossil fuels in transportation. This could be a very important goal for Caracas. [1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14461594574609038.jpg [2]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14461617099366296.jpg [3]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/1446162783190368.jpg [4]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14461628884804118.jpg