Abstract
Innovation: the key to a successful development of renewable energies
Carlo Rubbia, 1984 Nobel Laureate Physics, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland and CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain
The world energy outlook 2006 reveals that the energy future based on projections of the current trends is dirty, insecure and expensive. These trends will accentuate vulnerability to severe supply disruptions and resulting price shocks. They will greatly amplify the magnitude of global climate change.
There is a large gap between the political rhetoric and the reality of budgetary and other priorities. We are inevitably slipping towards a coal driven future society that will inevitably cause major environmental disruptions for many millennia ahead of us.
Current trends are unsustainable in respect of global warming. Climate change represents a threat to civilization of similar proportions to the one posed by the advent of thermonuclear weapons and it should be addressed with a similar priority by governments and brought more clearly to the attention of the public.
A new vision is urgently needed. Only an extremely vigorous innovative effort in research and development from universities, research institutions and a prompt industrial deployment by business towards new energy sources may off set this trend and transform our carbon-intensive economies into a new sustainable and equitable system.
A number of concrete ways to achieve these goals will be critically discussed in more detail.