ABSTRACT

Research and development (R&D) is a prerequisite for the evolution of global civilizations towards sustainable schemes. The development of the energy sector is especially relevant as it is inevitably linked to many aspects of sustainability, including protection of the natural life-support systems, the eradication of energy poverty in developing countries and the prevention of geopolitical conflicts. This evolutionary process may to a certain extent already be based on successful R&D and industrial activities in many countries. However, in order to set up a global sustainable energy system, much more R&D is needed in a wide area of fields, for example:

• on sustainable technologies for energy conversion, storage, transport and use; • on economic, political and institutional schemes for the transformation of

energy systems on all levels (local, regional, global); • on appropriate implementation of new energy technologies into societies; • on methods of financing the evolution of the energy system on a global scale; • on management structures to implement, organize and monitor global

transformation.