Energy Futures

Energy Futures is a new enterprise that has been set up to raise public awareness and provide a considered response to the energy issues that Ireland is now facing

For the past three decades, experts and geologists have warned of an oncoming global energy crisis that has been largely ignored. However, in recent months there has been what can only be described as a 'turnaround' - whereby world leaders and oil companies are openly responding to the urgency of these issues.

Energy Futures' primary objective is to raise public awareness regarding the scale of our fossil fuel dependency and the impact of a possible global energy shortage on the Irish economy. By seizing the initiative now, the company believes that we can make Ireland a model of the inevitable move away from fossil fuel dependency into a new era of responsible energy use – and of enhanced business opportunity.

The aims of Energy Futures are -

• To provide information on securing Ireland's future energy resources to business and the public, through high-level conferences and seminars
• To offer consultancy for policy-makers and the business community at local, regional and national level - and
• To lay the groundwork for a secure energy future for the coming generations, through our own and our children's education.

An issue on this scale cannot be tackled until it has first received much wider acknowledgment and appreciation. Accordingly, Energy Futures will arrange and present a series of high-level conferences intended to respond to Peak Oil and to address the future of energy use in Ireland with responsible and considered debate and discussion.

Solutions-driven in their intent, the focus of the Energy Futures' talks will be -

	To formulate practical responses to Peak Oil for businesses and investors
	To stimulate the political will to ensure that legislative change governing our energy use helps ensure real and lasting benefits – both for our own and for future generations.

The 20th Century saw the focus of society shift from rural to urban. People moved to the cities to service new industry and new technology. Communities were transformed as cheap and speedy travel became an option. The suburbs were born and spread ever wider to service the cities.

Education and training became highly specialised, due to the advent of labour-saving machines. Jobs, careers, families, lifestyles… all shifted and were re-made in order to accommodate the new shape of society. These changes were not inevitable or pre-destined – they were only made possible by the continued burning of cheap fossil fuels on a massive scale.

Fossil fuels are finite resources, but we have allowed ourselves to become almost entirely dependent on their continued supply in order for our society to function.

For transport, heat and light - throughout agriculture, industry and commerce - for everything that we take for granted, from easy travel by car or by plane, to the continued availability of low-price imported consumer goods – we rely on cheap oil and gas.

What happens when that supply begins to dry up? - and when global demand for the remaining stocks begins to exceed the available supply?

Oil and gas production will not cease overnight. However, in the event of a global energy shortage, the remaining reserves will become the target of fierce competition between the global powers - indeed, many suggest that this is already occurring.

In such a situation, how will Ireland stay connected? As a small nation, we are over-reliant on imported energy. Furthermore, we lack the purchasing power to compete with larger and wealthier countries for dwindling energy stocks. Securing energy resources for the future, therefore, presents a tough challenge to the Irish economy - but it is one that no sector of business or public life can afford to ignore, for it will affect us all in a very real way.

Energy Futures provides information and consultancy on energy use and on alternative energy sources to the business community - through conferences, seminars and studies. The company's focus is on formulating practical responses to a possible energy crisis for businesses and investors.

It also aims to stimulate the political will to ensure that legislative change, governing our energy use, helps ensure real and lasting benefits – both for our own and for future generations. The Energy Futures consultants will advise clients in a variety of industries on how to develop financially and environmentally superior ways to produce, buy, sell and save energy.

The company provides public, commercial and institutional energy users with technical and strategic recommendations for efficiency improvements - which not only increase profits but also reduce financial risk and improve service quality.

For further information, contact -

Energy Futures Ltd
14 Stephens Green
Dublin 2
Ireland

Tel: +353(0)1 642 5047
Email: info@energyfutures.ie
Web: www.energyfutures.ie