Renewable resources global distribution

Renewable resources are more evenly distributed than fossil and nuclear resources, and energy flows from renewable resources are more than three orders of magnitude higher than current global energy use. Today s energy system is unsustainable because of equity issues as well as environmental, economic, and geopolitical concerns that have implications far into the future (UNDP, 2000). 

Table 5.4.5 presents the distribution of the renewable water resources and the water availability by continent. The largest water resources are located in Asia and South America, and the smallest are found in Europe and Australia with Oceania. These absolute values do not reflect the water availability of the continents, as they differ much in area and population number. Hence, the specific water availability in cubic metres per year that fall on 1 km of area and per person is also listed in Table 5.4.5. For example, Asia has the greatest total water availability but the lowest per capita availability because of the large population. Conversely, Australia and Oceania have the lowest water resources but by far the greatest per capita availability. The amount of fresh water is enough to meet human needs if it were evenly be distributed, but the freshwater supply and people are not evenly distributed around the globe, and two-thirds of the global population live in areas receiving only one-quarter of the world s annual rainfall (Sophocleus, 2004).

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