| Abstract: | Even before September 11, the world's governments were beginning to look at energy policy in the light of new pressures. Fluctuating oil and gas prices had already brought energy security to the fore in some countries, and the declining nuclear industry is creating fear of a looming gap in electricity generation capacity on both sides of the Atlantic. Finally, the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been highlighted again by the Third Assessment Report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change. The United States response to these pressures has been to ignore the climate change issue and retreat into an old style predict and provide mentality to tackle energy security. It forecasts the need for up to 1900 new large scale power stations to meet its escalating demand for energy. But if climate change is taken seriously, as the rest of world's governments do, more innovative methods of delivering secure energy supplies, whilst cutting greenhouse gases, have to be found. Clearly renewable energy will be at the forefront of such a strategy, but the implications for energy policy go far deeper than just replacing one set of electricity generators with another. The whole policy framework will need an overhaul. Chris Hewett, Institute for Public Policy Research, UK looks at options for the road ahead and how decentralised energy systems can help deliver the sort of low carbon economy needed to prevent climate change. |
