The Foreign Service Journal, February 2009

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 19 dented and smart governmental support. Major research, develop- ment and demonstration programs, much more aggressive deployment strategies and an increasing value for carbon will all be necessary. Essential to decarbonizing the power sector, carbon capture and storage would permit the world to be able to continue using today’s fastest-growing fossil fuel — coal, whose production grows at 2 percent per year. Because both India and China plan to rely on this domestically available fuel, the majority of incremental carbon between now and 2050 will be generated by coal combustion in those two countries — unless we do some- thing about it. Leaders have called for an aggressive car- bon capture and storage demonstration effort encom- passing more than 20 full-scale plants. Yet we are nowhere near that target, with only two or three plants currently under construction. In parallel with development of technologies for carbon capture and storage, consumers, politicians and journalists need to be reas- sured that CO 2 can safely be stored in geologic or marine environ- ments. This issue has the potential to raise concerns comparable to those blocking programs in ra- dioactive waste storage, yet a serious effort to educate the public has not begun. Longer-term, more esoteric renewable sources and en- ergy vectors, such as hydrogen or second-generation bio- fuels, need a great deal of work and conceivably a much higher price of carbon to make their deployment eco- nomically feasible. There is also the risk that if the rollout is not done properly, consumers’ first experience with bio- fuels and their collision with food will chill enthusiasm for more sustainable varieties. Consumers have been surprised to find that biofuels F O C U S The entire world needs to be engaged in meeting the twin challenges of energy security and sustainability.