Development, Poverty and Energy, in the 21st Century

This work explores the area of global interdependences and the global context. In particular it deals with interdependences that seem to be absent from current literature but could be of great significance to identify the biggest challenges that the economy and the energy sector will have to face in the next two or three decades. In that sense, several issues are addressed: the dynamics of economic growth and its future; the relation between these dynamics and the foreseeable importance that urban poverty is to have at a global scale; the lack and inadequacy of information to approach crucial interdependences; and the need for a change in institutions and thinking habits to analyze the future. The approach focuses on the complex relationships that link urbanization, development phases, and technological changes dependent on products with shorter life cycles, discussing the impact of this kind of process over the genesis of urban poverty and over the structural modifications of economy. At the same time, a view on how these interdependences will become a serious and increasingly complex challenge for the energy sector and long term global sustainability is presented. The author also emphasizes the fact that these interdependences will become a serious and increasingly complex challenge that the energy sector will have to face if long term sustainability is to be attained.