'Peak Oil' drives urgent energy alternatives

• a major focus on energy conservation and energy efficiency;
• large-scale conversion to renewable energy;
• major investment in efficient public transport, rail, bus, cycling etc. and an immediate halt to investment in freeway and airport expansion;
• rapid phase-out of high carbon emission facilities such as coal-fired power stations unless safe carbon capture and storage can be introduced within 10 years;
• urgent introduction of high-speed broadband to minimise travel and improve communication efficiency;
• continued investment in low emission technology; and
• rapid reform of the tax system to remove the perverse incentives that encourage oil use and carbon emissions.

Lifestyle challenges

We face major changes to our lifestyle. It is not just high oil prices and global warming but the very question of the sustainability of humanity on the planet as the global population rises from 6.5 billion people today to nine billion in 2050, all aspiring to an improved quality of life. New technology will undoubtedly come to our aid but that will not be enough.

Our values must also change. Conventional economic growth in the developed world will have to be set aside in favour of a steady-state economy where the emphasis is on non-consumption and quality of life rather than the quantity of things.

There will be far more focus on local food production, opening up new opportunities for rural areas. Cities will be redesigned using high-density sustainability principles to avoid urban sprawl, and properly integrated with public transport to minimise energy consumption. Work centres will be decentralised. Rail, powered by renewable energy, will become a major transport mode for both freight and high-speed passenger traffic.

Air travel will reduce unless new technology develops jet fuel from, for example, bio sources, and even then emission constraints may limit its use. The internal combustion engine will disappear in favour of electric vehicles for many applications. Cycling and walking will become major activities for both work and pleasure - obesity and diabetes will decline!

The challenge is enormous, but it is the greatest opportunity we have ever had to place the world on a sustainable footing, for what we are doing currently is not sustainable. We must not waste this opportunity, but it needs far bolder and broader thinking than we are seeing at present.

This raises the question of the ability of our democratic system of government to implement such change. It will require statesmanship of the highest order, a quality sadly lacking in both national and global debate. Different forms of government will be needed, but that is a discussion for another day.