The Energy Crisis and Climate Change

The future global economy is likely to consume ever more energy, especially with the rising energy demand of developing countries such as China and India. At the same time, the tremendous risk of climate change associated with the use of fossil fuels makes supplying this energy increasingly difficult.

This challenge can hardly be addressed by single local solutions. Rather, it requires an interconnected global portfolio of energy sources that matches regional characteristics and that can satisfy the global energy demand in as efficient and carbon-free a way as possible.

While many developing regions are abundant in potential energy sources such as coal, solar power, wind, and water, state-of-the-art energy technologies are mainly developed in the industrialized countries, at least so far.