One of the biggest challenges facing the earth is how to meet the energy needs of a growing global population while tackling climate change. There are no easy answers to this challenge. The world needs as many people as possible to engage in the critical debate on how energy is produced and consumed. For this reason, Shell is offering for free to the public The colours of energy – Essays on the future of energy in society.
In 36 provocative and inspiring essays, the book’s 55 authors question established truths and chart possible paths towards a more sustainable future. The authors, drawn from industry, government and academia, share their insights on how to provide energy, within the finite boundaries of our planet, to a population that is growing both more affluent and numerous. The subjects are as varied as geopolitics, mobility, biomass, geologic climate records, nuclear energy and the ethics of oil recovery.
For example: Jorgen Randers (Club of Rome) draws lessons from his seminal The Limits to Growth. Amory Lovins (Rocky Mountain Institute) paints energy efficiency as a disruptive technology. Jeremy Bentham (Shell’s scenario group) analyses how net global carbon emissions may be reduced to zero. The book also contains a previously unpublished essay by James Lovelock (‘Gaia hypothesis’), written in 1966 about the year 2000. Perspectivity’s Herman van der Meyden has written an essay as well, together with his colleague Maaike Witteveen, embodying the perspective of the next generation.
Some essays focus on specific countries, showing the reader how challenges and approaches differ from place to place. They analyse, for example, how Germany may cope with its excess of renewable power and how China could become the next world leader of green energy.
The book has a foreword by Ben van Beurden (CEO of Shell) and a preface by Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker (Co-President of the Club of Rome). Written in accessible non-technical language, The colours of energy is an essential read for anyone interested in the changing world of energy. ‘It is a true venture to debate the future on the basis of what the best energy experts in the world have come up with’, as von Weizsäcker puts it.
Download the book for free to your iPad or e-reader and discover more about possible pathways into the future of energy.
Discover more at www.shell.com/colours
Disclaimer: The views expressed in The colours of energy – Essays on the future of energy in society are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries (Shell).