The two key areas likely to cause future conflict in the World are the provision of water and energy. Britain has been the beneficiary of North Sea Oil for nearly thirty years but that is all set to come to an end in the coming decade, when both the gas and oil fields dry up.
As fuel prices climb, even marginal fields in the North Sea will become worthwhile working and with the help of new and advanced technologies, the very last drop of oil can be salvaged. But this is hardly going to be a dent the growing demand from industry and consumers.
Energy hungry consumers are slowly learning to be more economical. Escalating prices mean that vulnerable sectors of the community face stark choices during cold winters as to whether to turn on heating or risk illness or even death from hypothermia.
One of the raging debates is over the future of nuclear energy. Back in the 1950s, this source was heralded as the provider of clean and cheap electricity. How thoughts have since changed.
Whilst the number of nuclear accidents has been small, the Three Mile Island and recent Japanese experiences have sent a shudder down the spines of national governments and consumer groups.
Britain faces a real challenge in the coming 30 years. Virtually all nuclear reactors are scheduled to go offline and relatively few new ones will be built.
With successive governments keen to meet challenging emissions targets for CO2, that means other more sustainable sources of power have to be found.
It seems that wind power is unlikely to add much to the national grid. Low efficiency rates and unpredictable winds plus the planning challenges of where they should be sited will hamper widescale deployment of generators.
Offshore developments require new power line infrastructure and that means huge financial investment at a time when the economy is weak.
Current strategies include the importation of liquefied gas from the Middle East to top up UK supplies. Whilst this is a cleaner energy source than coal burning, it risks placing fuel supplies of the UK into a politically unstable part of the world.
Already there have been examples where Russia has reduced gas supplies to a near neighbour over a disputed payment for gas.
Therefore, energy security is a necessity for any country and the UK is hardly developing a sensible long term strategy.
Moving off oil based energy supplies is not easy. Electric cars still need to be charged and that means generating supplies from predominantly coal fired stations. Hardly a beacon for efficient and clean motoring.
Homeowners, too, face significant challenges. Since the privatisation of the energy industry there are a wide range of suppliers now vying to supply domestic electricity and gas into homes. That, in turn, has led to a complicated and confusing price structure where it is almost impossible for a lay consumer to know whether they are on the best deal.
There has been a growth in comparison websites where the current plans can be compared based on actual consumption rates.
But as the suppliers regularly introduce new plans and market process change every consumer has to check regularly to make sure they are on the most sensible plan.
Article supplied by moneysupermarket.com, the UK’s number one comparison website. For great deals on credit cards read more here.