We seem to live in a polarized world: rich vs. poor, good vs. evil, east vs. west, right vs. left.

It= s as if one side of an argument needs the other to strike a balance.

The energy debate is similar. There are the pragmatists those that see today's trends continuing into the future in a business-as-usual model. And there are those who project change — seeing an energy future based on a renewables intensive global scenario. The respectable agencies on each side of this debate have remarkably similar acronyms, the IEA (International Energy Agency) and the EIA (Energy Information Agency of the US Dept of Energy).

How can these projections be so different from two such credible sources? It's a matter of perspective. The business-as-usual forecast plots energy use and GDP growth over decades and sees an ever increasing use of fossil fuels, nuclear energy and increasing carbon dioxide emissions. On the other hand, the IEA report states that the world's energy use is not sustainable, and therefore requires urgent and decisive action to shift towards renewable energy and technologies.

Where the IEA says that renewables could grow fourfold, the EIA projects that renewables will grow from 8% to 9% share. Whether we will fix the climate change issue will be determined by which side wins this debate.

People always ask me how GENI's doing? I tell them that more nations are interconnecting than ever, and that wind and solar are the fastest growing energy sectors today on the planet... but it's not fast enough. Renewable portfolio standards, buy-down programs, feed-in laws, production tax credits, net metering, green star appliances are all important — and we will still need to do more. In every nation, we must accelerate the pace of positive change, and seek all avenues to drive this shift on our planet. You support is helping us make that happen.

In partnership for the planet,