Energy for the 21st Century: A Declaration of Guiding Principles

Summary

Perhaps the single most remarkable achievement of humanity over the centuries has been the reduction in the share of national economies devoted to simply getting enough food and fuel. For most of history, between 50% and 80% of the economic output of nations has been consumed by those two essential pursuits. Since the dawn of the industrial and fossil fuel era—which are closely interlinked—that share has dropped impressively to below 20%. This is the real “energy transition”, and it has freed up time and capital for people to spend on education, health, comforts, and protecting the environment.

The central challenge of our time is thus illuminated by a simple fact that about one-fourth of the world’s population accounts for three-fourths of global GDP. Our goal for the coming century should be to ensure that the whole population—both the less fortunate in already developed countries as well as those in emerging and developing nations—can obtain the material wealth and social conditions enabled by low-cost, abundant energy, and in so doing have the economic wherewithal to invest in environmental protection. That will require significantly more energy.

Because energy is foundational for civilisation, as a guide for framing civil dialogue and deep thinking around the energy-environment balance, we propose herein nine energy principles, three each in three domains—Economics, Politics, and Science and Technology. These principles are underpinned by the laws of nature, fundamentals of economics, and standards of civil governance, rooted in what history teaches, and what is possible, practical, and reasonable.

It is our hope that the nine guiding principles offer a framework for policies directed at achieving that goal.