Long-term management of energy

It is the author´s view that, on a long term basis, a stable world free from major war is only possible if the developed countries reduce their energy consumption to about the present world average per-capita figure, i.e. about 2 tons of coal equivalent per capita per annum (2 TCE/c.a), and help the underdeveloped countries to achieve self sufficiency in energy and food at a comparable level. Both from this point of view and because of the cost of energy to the consumer in the rich countries, the author believes that the only feasible long-term policy for a developed country such as Britain is as follows: (i)There should be investment in energy conservation by investing capital and by other methods (such as the elimination of built-in obsolescence) as if fossil fuels cost several times as much as they do. (ii)Electricity is too precious a fuel to waste on the low-grade purposes of space and water heating, and so we should not build any new power stations but convert old ones in cities to coal firing with pass-out heat systems for houses and industry. This would give fruitful employment to the construction and heavy-engineering industries for many years. (iii)Solid fuels (preferably smokeless) should be available for all space and water heating whenever pass-out heat from power stations cannot be made available. Research on manless coal mining should be carried out very actively. (iv)A substantial amount of Government money (e.g. 20% of that spent on defence) should be devoted to `intermediate¿¿ or `alternative¿¿ technology, especially on the provision of village renewable energy systems.