Posted 28 September 2015
"The World Bank predicts that by 2035 the middle class will grow from 3 billion to 5 billion out of a total population of 8 billion. BP estimates that the world demand for energy will increase by another 40 per cent in total; more than 80 per cent of that will again be provided by fossil fuels. It would be immoral to stop that process. Even if the developed world was to halve its CO2 emissions over the next 20 years, the overall global emissions will grow as China, India and Africa continue their rise out of grinding poverty into a middle class existence. By 2050 more than half the world’s population will live in megacities, where local renewable energy will only serve people living on the top floor of high-rise buildings, and where nearby land is already dedicated to food production. Only fossil fuels and nuclear energy will power megacities in 2050, and it is too late now to expect anything substantially different " New Zealander, Dr Michael Kelly, FRS, Professor of Solid State Electronics and Nanoscale Science in the Division of Electrical Engineering, University of Cambridge UK, writing in Standpoint about the economic realities of energy generation.
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