While the world has become more energy efficient, it still uses a lot of energy to grow (twice as much as in the 1970s), and most of it based on fossil fuels. Perhaps even more than fiscal policy, energy issues create a lot of debate. Some developed countries have been restricting coal, while others have curtailed either nuclear and/or offshore petroleum drilling. At 300 universities in the United States, students have taken to petitioning their respective endowments to divest from the roughly 2% they have invested in fossil fuel stocks (how that would actually translate into greater renewable energy production and consumption escapes me). At the same time, the developing world has been subsidizing fuel and electricity consumption by $450 billion per year according to the IMF, providing over 90% of such subsidies worldwide.
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