Chapter 11
Energy and transport for the future
We flicka switch and energy flows. Energy is provided so easily for the
developed world that thought is rarely given to where it comes from,
whether it will ever run out or whether it is harming the environment.
Energy is also cheap enough that little serious attention is given to con-
serving it. However, most of the world’s energy comes from the burning
of fossil fuels, which generates a large proportion of the greenhouse gas
emissions into the atmosphere. If these emissions are to be reduced, a
large proportionof the reduction will have to occur in the energy sec-
tor. There is a need, therefore, to concentrate the minds of policymakers
and indeed of everyone on our energy requirements and usage. This
chapter looks at how future energy might be provided in a sustainable
manner.^1 It also addresses how basic energy services might be made avail-
able to the more than two billion in the world who asyet have no such
provision.
World energy demand and supply
Most of the energy we use can be traced back to the Sun. In the case
of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) it has been stored away over millions
of years in the past. If wood (or other biomass including animal and
vegetable oils), hydro-power, wind or solar energy itself is used, the
energy has either been converted from sunlight almost immediately or
has been stored for at most a few years. These latter sources of energy
are renewable; they will be considered in more detail later in the chapter.
The only common form of energy that does not originate with the Sun is
nuclear energy; this comes from radioactive elements that were present
in the Earth when it was formed.
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