The International Energy Agency on Wednesday released its World Energy Outlook (http://www.iea.org/weo/) addressing the 25-year outlook of such things as Russia's energy prospects, the role of coal in economic growth, fossil fuel subsidies and support for renewable energy.Richard NewellAssociate professor of energy and environmental economics at Duke University, director of the Duke Energy Initiative.http://fds.duke.edu/db/Nicholas/esp/faculty/rgn3Newell recently returned to the Duke campus after a two-year leave of absence during which he was the administrator of the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration.Quotes:"The World Energy Outlook illustrates the continued dominance of oil for transportation. Even as mature economies moderate oil demand through efficiency and biofuels, emerging economies' oil demand for transport grows by almost 50 percent. The bottom line is, like it or not, we should be prepared for price swings at the pump for some time to come.""The report fits with other analyses that have concluded that unless something significant changes about our energy technologies, markets and policies, current trends lead to an energy future that looks very much like the present -- just bigger, much bigger. Most of it would be fossil-fueled with little control on greenhouse gas emissions.""The proposed greenhouse gas limits of 450 parts per million appear to be increasingly unlikely to happen, though I think there is a vast space for progress between where the energy system is currently headed and the most ambitious greenhouse gas-reduction goals. We need to place more attention on that space."
