INREC10-1 THE CURRENT STATUS AND POSSIBLE SUSTAINABLE PATHS TO ENERGY “GENERATION ” AND USE

The energy predicament that the world faces, composed of rising energy and overall resources consumption alongside with associated rise in negative environmental, economical and social impacts, is described with recent data. A brief discussion of the status, sustainability (economic, environmental and social impact), and challenges and prospects of fossil, nuclear (including nuclear water desalination) and renewable energy use, and of power generation including the further-future concepts of superconductors, nuclear fusion, and power generation in space for terrestrial use, is presented. Comments about energy conservation and the rebound effect are brought up. Ways to resolve the problem of the availability, cost, and sustainability of energy resources alongside the rapidly rising demand, are discussed. The author's view of the promising sustainable energy paths to the future, and last year's trends in government funding, are presented. 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE MAJOR FACTS AND PREDICAMENT (the main sources for uncited information in this section are [1-15], and those cited in further sections of the paper). 1.1 Critical global information. Energy resources and consumption are intimately related to environmental quality and other vital resources such as water and food. The energy situation must be viewed in that context, and some of the related key global data are therefore shown in Tabl