Energy‎,‎ and access to energy‎,‎ are essential to human life‎,‎ civilisation and development‎.‎ A number of energy issues ‎- including energy security‎,‎ energy prices and the polluting emissions for energy use ‎- now have high prominence on global agendas of policy and diplomacy‎.‎ In addressing these and other global energy issues‎,‎ the purpose of this book is to lay out the broad global energy landscape‎,‎ exploring how these issues might develop in coming decades‎,‎ and the implications of such developments for energy policy‎.‎ There are great uncertainties‎,‎ which will be identified‎,‎ in respect of some of these issues‎,‎ but many of the defining characteristics of the landscape are clear‎,‎ and the energy policies of all countries will need to be broadly consistent with these if they are to be feasible and achieve their objectives‎.‎ The book therefore provides information about and analysis of energy and related resources‎,‎ and the technologies that have been and are being developed to exploit them that is essential to understanding how the global energy system is developing‎,‎ and how it might develop in the future‎.‎ But its main focus is the critical economic‎,‎ social‎,‎ political and cultural issues that will determine how energy systems will develop and which technologies are deployed‎,‎ why‎,‎ by whom‎,‎ and who will benefit from them‎.‎ The book has three Parts‎.‎ Part I sets out the current global context for energy system developments‎,‎ outlining the essential trends of global energy supply and demand‎,‎ and atmospheric emissions‎,‎ from the past and going forward‎,‎ and their driving forces‎.‎ Part II explores the options and choices‎,‎ covering both energy demand and energy supply‎,‎ facing national and international policymakers as they confront the challenges of the global context outlined in Part I‎.‎ Part III of the book brings together the discussion in Parts I and II with consideration of possible global energy and environmental futures‎,‎ and of the energy policy choices which will determine which future actually comes to pass‎.‎