When energy dip meets global warming

The world's energy supplies are on a collision course with global warming and the resultant crash will not be pretty.

Oil production could peak this decade and when the turning point arrives oil prices will be sent soaring. Meanwhile, global warming driven by the burning of fossil fuels is set to run out of control, with uncertain consequences.

The struggle to develop alternative energy sources will take place in an economic downturn triggered by expensive oil and exacerbated by the costly impacts of a radically changed climate.

So argues Dr Jeremy Leggett, former oil industry consultant and later Greenpeace campaigner and now head of one of the UK's largest independent solar electricity companies.

Leggett comes to Dublin next month to deliver an Academy Times lecture in the Dublin Castle conference centre. The talk is organised by the Royal Irish Academy, The Irish Times and Depfa Bank.

The title chosen by Leggett is Half Gone: Peak Oil Meets Climate Changeand it readily explains where the speaker stands on the oil supply issue.

While the oil industry itself argues that peak oil - the point at which oil production flatlines and begins to decline due to diminishing supplies - won't visit us until into the 2030s, Leggett's contention is peak oil will strike us within the next three years.

In his talk, Leggett will describe what is likely to happen as energy supplies fall even as the price per barrel rockets. The economic turmoil that will ensue will be played out even as the changes wrought by climate change gradually begin to bite. He believes the crunch will be every bit as bad as the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The combination of oil cost and climate change will make it even more difficult for the world to find a way out of its problems. The question he asks is whether society will be able to meet its energy requirements while also solving global warming.

It is for this reason that Leggett argues for a huge acceleration in the development of renewable energy and the discovery of new forms of energy that do not affect climate.

This in effect represents the final battleground in an effort to save the planet from the consequences of global warming.

Leggett is the author of books including The Carbon Warand The Empty Tank.

He has received the US Climate Institute's award for advancing understanding and has been praised for his efforts to help people realise the risks of our current energy path and the need for alternatives.

His lecture takes place on Wednesday November 7th at 6pm in Dublin Castle. The lecture is free but places are limited and so must be booked using the Academy's website: www.ria.ie

The lecture kicks off a major day-long conference, Where Will Ireland Get Its Energy?, which takes place on Thursday November 8th at Dublin Castle.

The conference fee is €200 and €50 for students and places may be booked on the academy's web site.