Energizing industrial development

The role of energy sources in the choice of industrial development pathways has not been widely acknowledged outside the energy literature. Indeed, as oil prices rise, traditional fossil fuel-intensive industrial development pathways now imperil development prospects around the world. As energy security becomes a major issue, developing countries have everything to lose by simply following fossil-fuel based industrialization, and everything to gain by recasting their development strategies around the prospects for renewable energies and biofuels. This paper argues that the time is therefore ripe for developing countries to re-evaluate their stance on renewable energy sources generally, and on biofuels in particular.