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IB DP ESS — Topic 7: Natural Resources | SL / HL | Paper 1 & Paper 2
🎯 Learning Intentions By the end of this note, you will be able to:
- Define renewable and non-renewable energy sources using IB-aligned ESS terminology, and distinguish between them using examples.
- Explain how fossil fuel combustion drives the enhanced greenhouse effect and contributes to climate change at a global scale.
- Describe the environmental, social, and economic impacts of different energy sources, including solar, wind, hydroelectric, nuclear, and fossil fuels.
- Analyse energy use patterns across different societies using ESS analysis parameters: scale, sustainability, trade-offs, and multiple perspectives.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of renewable energy transitions in addressing climate change and resource depletion, with reference to named real-world examples.
- Discuss contrasting worldviews — ecocentric, technocentric, and anthropocentric — in relation to energy choices and sustainability.
- Outline the concept of energy security and explain why it is central to national and international policy decisions.
Real-World Context & Relevance
In August 2023, the global average surface temperature exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time on record, a threshold the Paris Agreement had sought to avoid. The Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year in recorded history, with global average temperatures approximately 1.48°C above the pre-industrial baseline. The primary driver of this warming is the combustion of fossil fuels — coal, oil, and natural gas — which collectively account for approximately 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions (International Energy Agency, "World Energy Outlook 2023"). The energy systems that power modern civilisation are, in the most direct sense, destabilising the climate systems that make that civilisation possible.
Yet the picture is not uniformly bleak. In 2023, renewable energy sources — solar, wind, and hydroelectric — accounted for approximately 30% of global electricity generation, the highest share ever recorded. Denmark generated over 60% of its electricity from wind power in 2023, and Costa Rica ran on 99% renewable electricity for most of the year. These examples demonstrate that the transition away from fossil fuels is technically feasible. The central question for ESS is not whether alternatives exist, but whether the transition can occur at sufficient speed and scale to prevent irreversible damage to Earth's systems — and who bears the costs and benefits of that transition.
🌍 Why This Matters Energy production is the single largest driver of global greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss through habitat destruction, and freshwater pollution. The choices societies make about energy sources — and the speed at which they transition — will determine whether global temperature rise remains within manageable bounds and whether future generations inherit functioning ecosystems. Energy is not merely a technical or economic issue: it is a fundamental question of sustainability, justice, and the relationship between human societies and Earth's systems.
Core Concepts & Definitions
Before we can evaluate the sustainability of any energy system, we need to understand a fundamental distinction that underlies all energy policy debates: the difference between energy sources that replenish on human timescales and those that do not. This distinction shapes everything from national energy security strategies to international climate