TOWARD SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC-GROWTH - THE AGE OF ENERGY GASES

Energy is an essential component of all economic activity and is required for the production of all goods and the provision of all services. Therefore, sustainable economic growth must be fueled by energy systems that are increasingly more efficient, less expensive and cleaner. In order to sustain economic growth. energy systems must increase economic productivity and competitiveness, put more people to work and must, in the near term, limit and, in the long term, reduce environmental degradation. There are predominantly two states of matter: solids and gases; liquid is a transitional and intermediate state of matter. At the end of the 20th century, state-of-the-art energy systems are in transition from liquid oil to gaseous methane-natural gas. We are now embarking on the ''Age of Energy Gases''-an age that will begin with natural gas-methane as our principal fuel and end with totally clean hydrogen: using basically the same infrastructure as natural gas and, therefore, the economies of planet Earth, for the first time, have a light at the end of the tunnel to sustainable economic growth.