Ignore your conscience: big oil still beats green power

If you are the kind of person who believes the things the City says, you might by now be almost convinced that we don’t really need oil any more.

If you are the kind of person who believes the things the City says, you might by now be almost convinced that we don’t really need oil any more. Within seconds of the publication of the Stern report every analyst in town had become an expert on green energy, and investors were being advised to put their money in everything from wind, solar and wave power to fuel cells and biomass electricity plants, all of which were being put about as perfectly viable alternatives to fossil fuels. The problem is that, at present at least, they aren’t.

Wind power is famously inefficient. Wave power is a very nascent technology. Solar power is expensive. And the best of the lot, fuel cell technology, while making encouraging progress, isn’t there yet.