NAFTA countriesʹ energy and environmental interdependence: Deviations arising from trading-bloc exclusions

The assessed NAFTA countries (i.e. the USA, Canada and Mexico) are categorised on the bases of their levels of economic development and indigenous energy resources, i.e. classified as energy rich and either: • • advanced industrialised (i.e. Canada and the USA) or:• • developing (i.e. Mexico) For each country, its energy balance (including considerations of resources, rates of consumption, fuels-demand types as well as the degree of national self-sufficiency with respect to each fuel) is related to the rate of economic development of the nation state. This investigation explores the growing interdependency between the USA, Canada and Mexico and the economic implications for neighbouring countries excluded from this trading bloc. Worldwide, we are failing to address with sufficient urgency and adequate immediate actions the simultaneous related problems and consequences of: • • the major depletion of fossil-fuel reserves that will occur during the next 50 years;• • environmental degradation, which is occurring as a result of our non-sustainable lifestyles. These are considered with respect to the NAFTA countries.