Global Energy Crisis

The new energy crisis is not related to high oil prices or to the exhaustion of oil and gas reserves. The new crisis comes from the recent intrusion of climate change issues into energy economics and geopolitics. The reality of climate change has been hidden and long denied. Today the warming of the climate is a proven reality and acknowledged by the international scientific community, but no one knows exactly what will be the physical, economic, geopolitical and social impacts of the phenomenon. It could be very costly for the world economy, especially for the more vulnerable countries that are often among the poorest. Climate change has recently revealed that the current energy/ environment equilibrium is unsustainable. The unbalance may be described with a few figures. Today there are 6.5 billion people living on the Earth. Among them 1.2 billion (18 per cent) account for almost 50 per cent of world energy consumption and are responsible for 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Among the others, roughly 2 billion people are living on less than two dollars per day.