Cambridge O Level Environmental Management: Energy Resources — Revision Notes (5014, 2027-2029)

Syllabus edition note. These notes follow the Cambridge O Level Environmental Management 5014 syllabus for exams in 2027, 2028 and 2029 (version 1), first examined in the June 2027 series. If you sit 5014 in November 2026 in Mauritius, you sit the 2025-2026 syllabus (version 2), where energy is its own topic (Topic 2 Energy and the environment, 2.1-2.6) and includes oil pollution. Use the 2025-2026 Energy and the Environment revision notes if you sit in November 2026.

Condensed recall for sub-topics 1.4-1.6 of Topic 1 Natural resources. For explanation and worked examples, use the Energy Resources study guide.

1.4 Energy resources

Formation of fossil fuels (1.4.1):

• Coal — swamp plants, partly decayed in waterlogged, low-oxygen conditions, buried, then heat and pressure over millions of years.
• Petroleum (oil) and natural gas (methane) — remains of marine organisms in sea-bed mud, buried without oxygen, then heat and pressure over millions of years; trapped under impermeable rock.

Classification (1.4.2):

• Renewable (non-finite): biofuels (bioethanol, biomass, biogas and wood), geothermal power, hydro-electric power, tidal power, wave power, solar power, wind power.
• Non-renewable (finite): fossil fuels, nuclear power using uranium.

Generating electricity (1.4.3):

• Heat raises steam that turns a turbine and generator: fossil fuels, biofuels, nuclear (heat from fission), geothermal (heat from rocks).
• Moving water turns a turbine: hydro-electric, tidal, wave.
• Wind turns the turbine blades directly.
• Solar photovoltaic cells convert light directly into electricity.

Benefits and limitations (1.4.4): for every resource, one of each. For example: wind has no emissions during generation but its output depends on the wind; nuclear gives steady output with very little carbon dioxide during generation but produces radioactive waste.

Demand factors (1.4.5), all eight: transport; personal and national wealth; climate; human population size; industry; disruption to supply; unreliable supply; scarcity of resources.

1.5 Conservation and management of energy resources

Management strategies (1.5.1), all eight: reducing consumption; insulation; energy-efficient devices including vehicles and electrically propelled vehicles; exploiting existing energy resources; education on energy conservation; transport policies; battery storage; development of new energy resources.

New energy resources (1.5.2):

Resource	Syllabus description
Blue hydrogen fuel	Produced from natural gas
Green hydrogen fuel	Produced using renewable resources
Ground source heat pumps	Transfer of heat from the ground for heating
Air source heat pumps	Transfer of heat from the air for heating

Benefits and limitations (1.5.3): behaviour-based strategies (reducing consumption, education) are cheap but depend on people changing habits; technology-based strategies (insulation, efficient devices, electric vehicles, heat pumps) save energy over time but cost more at the start; battery storage saves no energy but stores surplus electricity (for example from solar or wind) for later use, at a cost.

1.6 Fracking

Fracking = “the extraction of natural gas or petroleum from shale rock by hydraulic fracturing”.

Benefits	Limitations
Access to gas and oil otherwise out of reach	Large water use
Greater national energy supply, fewer imports	Risk of ground water contamination
Jobs and tax income	Can trigger small earthquakes
Gas emits less carbon dioxide than coal for electricity	Still a fossil fuel; methane can leak

Command word reminders

“Describe” (1.4.1, 1.4.3, 1.5.1, 1.5.2) wants features or steps. “Describe and explain” (1.4.5) wants each factor and how it changes demand. “Discuss the benefits and limitations” (1.4.4, 1.5.3, 1.6.2) wants both sides, ideally with a conclusion. “Classify” (1.4.2) wants each resource put in the correct group. “Define” (1.6.1) wants the syllabus wording.

Quick recall checklist

• Can I describe how coal, oil and natural gas form?
• Can I sort all nine named energy resources (counting biofuels as one and fossil fuels as one) into renewable and non-renewable?
• Can I say how each one generates electricity?
• Do I know all eight demand factors, with the direction each pushes demand?
• Do I know all eight management strategies and the four new energy resources?
• Can I define fracking and give two benefits and two limitations?

Common mistakes

• Calling nuclear power renewable.
• Forgetting biomass in the biofuels list.
• Mixing up blue hydrogen (from natural gas) and green hydrogen (using renewable resources).
• Revising oil pollution here: in this edition it is 3.5, in Topic 3 Water.
• Listing demand factors without explaining how each affects demand.

Related resources

• Energy Resources study guide (2027-2029)
• Energy Resources practice questions (2027-2029)
• Rocks, Ores and Minerals revision notes (2027-2029)

Official syllabus

Cambridge International, Cambridge O Level Environmental Management 5014 syllabus for 2027, 2028 and 2029, pp.14-15: https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/Images/718208-2027-2029-syllabus.pdf (read 2026-09-21).