SPECIAL SERIES
The Energy Challenge
The energy challenge facing the world is ultimately one of environmental, geopolitical, and resource sustainability. This special Project Syndicate series brings the best minds to bear on all aspects of these issues, and, unlike much fashionable partisan advocacy, exposes readers to the full gamut of the diverse positions that are shaping debates about the future of energy.
...read more| RECENT COMMENTARIES | FEATURED COMMENTARIES | MOST READ COMMENTARIES |
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A New Climate Deal is Achievable
Connie Hedegaard Series: The Energy Challenge 2009-11-16Reaching a global agreement on climate change this year in Copenhagen will require political courage from leaders around the world. With the future of their economies and national security at stake, it requires no less than that they live up to their most fundamental responsibility toward their citizens.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 15795
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Nuclear Power in the Balance
Mohamed ElBaradei Series: The Energy Challenge 2009-11-16
The future of nuclear power will be one of the key issues on the table at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, with 30 countries already using it and 60 more planning to introduce it. But, if a country decides to pursue a nuclear energy program, it has a responsibility to so correctly.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 16240
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Has Oil Production Peaked?
Bassam Fattouh Series: The Energy Challenge 2009-11-16Throughout the history of the oil industry, fear and concern about the imminent exhaustion of the world's oil resources has been a recurring theme. Today's "peak oil" theorists continue this tradition, constantly facing the need to revise their dire forecasts without ever examining why their earlier predictions were wrong.... read Comments: 7 Recommended: 1 Read: 20939
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Precautionary Absurdity
Freeman Dyson Series: The Energy Challenge 2009-11-16
Many people who advocate draconian measures to counteract climate change base their argument on the so-called “precautionary principle,” which holds that when a possible future disaster would be unacceptably severe, action to prevent it is imperative regardless of the cost. But this is impossible, because there is no future free of risk of an endless variety of such diasasters.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 16971
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The Great Hydrogen Hope
Peter Hoffmann Series: The Energy Challenge 2009-11-16Today, several hundred hydrogen-powered prototype cars, buses, vans and minivans, a motorcycle or two, a few scooters, utility vehicles (including a slew of forklift trucks), and even a couple of farm tractors are already operating. Manufacturing them is still prohibitively expensive, but major carmakers are poised to bring down costs sharply in the coming years.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 19781
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KGB Petroleum
Nina L. Khrushcheva Series: The Energy Challenge 2009-11-16
Today, the contemporary version of the KGB, the Federal Security Bureau, runs Russia’s energy businesses in much the same top-down way that the KGB once ran the Soviet Union, with business always subordinate to the regime’s political needs. The result has been not only widespread corruption and under-investment, but also an inability to modernize and diversify the economy.... read Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 18048
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The Climate Change Debate’s Willpower Fallacy
Bjørn Lomborg Series: The Energy Challenge 2009-11-16There is a dangerous misperception that willpower and political agreement are the only missing ingredients needed to combat global warming. In fact, there is also a colossal technological hurdle, because ending our reliance on fossil fuels requires a complete transformation of the world’s energy systems.... read Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 17682
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Asia’s Energy Future
Kishore Mahbubani Series: The Energy Challenge 2009-11-16
Many in the West are alarmed by Asia’s growing appetite for energy: if China and India match American per capita consumption of fossil fuels, the resulting carbon emissions will only accelerate global warming. But India, China, and other Asian countries are also witnessing remarkable growth in local alternative energy companies and the use of renewable energy.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 19455
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Testing the Limits of Fossil Fuels
Michael Spence Series: The Energy Challenge 2009-11-16MILAN – Most people recognize that human activity, primarily the use of fossil fuels, is contributing mightily to an increasing level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases, particularly CO2, increase the risk of damage to the world’s climate. This means that limits on our consumption of fossil fuels cannot be measured only by the availability of supplies, but must also take account of the environmental costs. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17892
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