Energy in the 21st century: new challenges and goals

In the next century, energy will remain the pillar of social development and wealth. The demand for energy will continue to increase apace with economic growth in the medium term and population growth in the longer term. Different views on the objectives of economic growth in developing countries (where the emphasis will be on social development), as compared with developed countries (where sustainability of achievements will be the major goal), lend varying degrees of momentum to energy growth in each region. In severd countries, development planning strategies might also conflict sharply with environmental concerns, thus complicating the implementation of timely environmental protection policy strategies. On the other hand, the early introduction and,deployment of safe and clean technologies could reduce future economic burdens, such as compensation payments for health and the environmental costs of energy use. This joint paper was presented at the l5th Congress of the World Energy Council, in Madrid, Spain, in September 1992. It represents the collective views of the IAEA, IIASA. OPEC and UNIDO on the future world energy situation. However, those data and results which lie outside the scope of recognized IIASA research areas represent the opinions of the other organizations and are not attributable to IIASA. These four Vienna-based international organizations formed the study group 'The Vienna Four' in February 1990, to increase energy market transparency and enhance energy planning through the exchange of information, assessing gaps in existing programmes and supporting joint studies