THE ENERGY DIMENSIONS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Few seem to recognize the enormity of the challenge of limiting world carbon emissions. Carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels will go up, not down, in the years following the Rio conference. This will not be because the industrial economies are energy wastrels; they have reined in their emissions. Rather, the increase in carbon emissions will be the consequence of continued economic development of the non-industrial economies whose populations are rapidly increasing. Businesses, and energy businesses in particular, will be the key instruments in making this development catch-up process sustainable.