The Climate Change Policy Debate: Which way is the world heading?

Contributed by Robert Lyman © 2019

Robert Lyman is an Ottawa energy policy consultant. He was a public servant for 27 years and prior to that, a diplomat for 10 years.  His full biography is here.

The Issue

• Proponents of the thesis that humans are causing catastrophic global warming claim that renewable energy sources (wind, solar, and others) inevitably will replace fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) as the world’s primary sources of energy.
• They further claim that this is driven by competitive market forces.
• Opponents of this view claim that current market trends, driven by economic growth in the less developed countries, are leading to increasing use of fossil fuels, in spite of immense subsidies to renewables.

This power point explores the trends and statistics concerning world energy use to better inform public policy discussions and expectations.

Link to full presentation:  History (2) rev july1