The Future of Energy

Project Coordinators: Prof. Cutler Cleveland (Geography & Environment) and  Prof. Adil Najam (The Pardee Center)

The Pardee Center assembled an international team of energy experts and asked them to answer the following question: What might the energy-society relationship look like in 2100?

08-offshore_wind_turbineTwenty-five distinguished experts are essays in response to that question by addressing specific issues such as

  1. What cultural, social, political, economic, technological, moral and geopolitical forces will drive the energy transition that will have unfolded, or still be unfolding, by 2100?
  2. What is the overall level well being – however one defines it – in 2100, and what role has energy played in supporting it? What do international differences in well being and the energy-society relationship look like in 2100?
  3. How will the forces of globalization have shaped the energy/society relation that exists in 2100?
  4. How will the culturally grounded practices that shape energy use – family relations, gender, relations of production, the built environment, morals, etc. – be different in 2100?
  5. How will the stark differences in energy supply/use between developed and developing nations that currently exist have changed by 2100?
  6. What was the role the market versus government policy in driving the energy transition?
  7. What role will the environmental impacts associated with various energy systems play in producing the patterns of energy use that exist?

Events

Pardee House Seminar: Beyond the Energy Crisis
September 22, 2008. Seminar on the future of energy
Participants: Prof. Cutler Cleveland (Geography and Environment), Prof. Uday Pal (Engineering), Moeed Yusuf (Political Science). Moderator: Prof. Adil Najam (The Pardee Center).

Pardee House Seminar: Technology and Development
November 3, 2008. Seminar on the links between technology and development
Participants: Ahmed Hashmi (BP), Dr. Ashley Stevens (Office of Technology Development), Prof. Dilip Mookherjee (Economics). Moderator: Prof. Adil Najam (The Pardee Center).