The world is facing a lot of problems when it comes to energy and there are two basic reasons for this. One is the increasind cost of electricity and the other is the concern of the impact of our consumption of energy on the environment. Depending on political & economic views, people can say that one concern here is far more important when compared to the other. But, there are very few investors who would say that either of these issues aren’t important in the debate over energy.

During December, leaders of the world tried addressing the second problem at the U.N. Climate Change Conference at Copenhagen. But, a lot of observers considered the summit to have failed as developed countries & their emerging counterparts in markets did not agree on mechanisms for guaranteeing reductions. The emerging economies like China continue to grow and so does their energy demand. These countries do not want to commit to a hard reduction in their targets which would impede their growth significantly. Instead, these nations committed to targets relating to increasing their energy and carbon efficiency.

Even the developing countries are now demanding technology and money. The idea is for developed countries to help in paying for clean technologies for these countries so that they can reduce their harmful emissions. Even though the delveoped countries have agreed to give some funds to the developing countries, there was a mixed opinion on what was considered a reasonable amount. This issue is going to be troublesome for many years. Just imagine how it would feel to pitch plans to the public which involved giving billions of U.S. dollars in yearly suvsidies to developing countries such as China and India for green technologies. This proposal will be difficult to see even in the best possible times and is close to impossible to sell in the present economic scenario.

In the meantime, the developing countries continue to push for reduction targets for absolute emissions. In most of the cases, the developed countries have been meeting these targets with the help of variations on the cap & trade scheme. A good example would be the American Clean Energy & Security Act that was passed by the Congress in the summer. It is not likely for any U.S. cap & trade bill to become law this year itself. And with the recent election of Scott Brown, the Republican, to the senate, the chances of this bill getting passed keep on reducing.

The developing countries of the world are striving ever so hard to catch up with the developed ones. They are asking for a helping hand and at a time like this, with the economy as it is, the developed countries are finding it very hard to oblige.