Who's afraid of atmospheric stabilisation? Making the link between energy resources and climate change

The distribution of fossil fuel reserves and resources between different re gions and deposits has strong implications for climate change economics and policy. The task of stabilising the atmosphere is intimately linked to the question of long-term energy supplies as conventional petroleum reserves d eplete, notwithstanding debates about the scope for reserve extension throu gh continued exploration and development. It suggests a supply-side compone nt to complement the consumption orientation of existing climate policies: the task is to ensure that investment and innovation moves towards the 'low carbon frontier' instead of the 'high carbon frontier'. This also implies that the OPEC countries have little to fear about the long-run impact of cl imate change policy. The priority is to deter development of more carbon-in tensive unconventional petroleum deposits and technologies, and to ensure t hat the existing trends to diversify power generation sources continue and extend more widely over time. Supply-side constraints will not solve the cl imate problem in themselves - but they make the task a lot easier, if the o pportunities are taken. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.