Reinventing Energy Futures

Over the next few decades, the increasing demand for resources and the pressures of climate change are going to force some rapid and potentially difficult decisions on the role of energy in the global economy. While many governments are now taking seriously the need to think about 'energy security' few have engaged with the full set of questions raised about current energy policies by the need to move to a low-carbon economy in the first half of this century.

A useful exercise has been undertaken by the Institute for the Future in terms of exploring a number of scenarious that could come to characterise our political, social and economic systems depending on the energy choices we make today.

The Reinventing Energy Futures: Four Visions Map developed by the Institute is "an invitation to explore four corners of possibility for the future of energy. It is a tool to make connections across a broad array of action domains where control over our resources will play out. In the difficult to forecast field of energy futures, where data and projection models often clash and expertise runs deep and narrow, this map is a way to frame new actions."

While the document's design aesthetic may not be everyone's cup of tea (as if sustainablesecurity.org is a thing of style and beauty!) the issues raised and the way the different visions are mapped out makes for interesting reading and challenges us to think carefully about where future energy demand fits in our attempts at achieving a sustainable security today.  

The Reinventing Energy Futures: Four Visions Map can be accessed here.

 Image source: Ulleskelf.