Why should climate policy recognize the role of fossil fuels?
A. Energy is needed to drive economic growth and to improve our quality of life. Today’s energy requirements are huge and are expected to grow substantially larger as the world’s population grows and economies develop further. About 85 percent of today’s energy requirements are supplied by hydrocarbons (oil, natural gas and coal) and that mix is not expected to change substantially by 2030. The role of renewable and alternative energy will continue to help meet the rising demand; however there is no single replacement for hydrocarbons — either for power or for transportation — at the scale needed. Therefore, climate change policies must enable available energy sources to operate in an energy–growth and carbon–constrained world. Policies that severely restrict the use of fossil fuels would be disruptive to global economic growth.
