IEA report advises governments to embrace renewables and nuclear

According to the IEA's scenarios then, the issue of global power production over the next two-three decades devolves upon two major issues.

The first is cost, which will undoubtedly be an uphill struggle for many governments seeking to meet the population's rising energy demands, who will be loathe to endure increasing energy bills.

The second consideration is the contentious issue of global warming, and the impact of traditional fossil fuel-fired power plants belching vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

While even the most diehard proponents of traditional power plant electrical generation to not deny that their facilities emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide, they denigrate the concerns of environmentalists as 'fuzzy science."

So, at the end of the day, the two fundamental issues facing the world's nations seeking to satiate their population's demand for reliable and inexpensive power devolve down to cost and scientific projections. We'll leave the final word to the IEA, which laid out three scenarios, ranging from best- to worst-case - "The wide difference in outcomes between these three scenarios underlines the critical role of governments to define the objectives and implement the policies necessary to shape our energy future." Accordingly, the major question is whether global governments will have both the cash and political will "to shape our energy future" to the best possible ends.