The Essential Energy Transition - Energy and Climate: How to Achieve a Successful Energy Transition - page 38

Lower pollution and the resulting positive consequences on health repre-
sent an essential factor to improve the quality of life.
Energy choices cannot be dissociated from the major problems
which will affect humanity in the coming years: demographic control,
consumption modes and standard of living, education, health, food and
water requirements. Faced with the various threats, a global transition
must be successfully implemented to drive back under-development and
preserve the planet for future generations.
The current energy model of the richest countries is neither durable
nor exportable. To prevent tensions which would be likely to degenerate
into violent conflicts, we must reconsider the way energy is used, taking
into account improvement of the well-being of the entire population.
Initiative at a global scale will be necessary to meet the planet s

requirements. The Kyoto Protocol represents a first attempt which,
although incomplete, has the merit of triggering the adaptation required
to tackle the risks of climate change.
The very notion of transition may seem to be in contradiction with
the concept of durable development. The solutions to be implemented
during the transition period are not truly 'durable', since they aim at
simplifying the creation of a different system using measures including
some which will be temporary. The transition will produce a new energy
system that will be more 'durable' than the current system, but will
probably be neither total nor permanent.
It is therefore more accurate to speak of 'sustainable' development.
In a changing world, no system can continue indefinitely. It is essential,
however, to make our economic development compatible with the sur-
vival of our planet.

The need for global regulation and governance

The risks of climate change raise a problem that humanity has never had
to face before.
The situation created by massive CO 2 emissions, unlike the problems
of local pollution already encountered, is unprecedented. It is exception-
ally serious and affects the entire planet. For the time being, however,
its consequences are only felt very slightly by the human population.
There is little chance that the measures required will follow naturally,
based on current market mechanisms alone. These measures have a
relatively high cost and it seems unlikely that an economic player will
accept this cost, without some sort of statutory or incentive mechanism.