二酸化炭素の排出と温室効果ガスの削減、持続可能な方法でのエネルギー供給、燃料技術の根本的な改革が、今日の科学者や政策立案者に広く支持されているエネルギーシステムの方向性です。化石エネルギー資源の重要性とその搾取のため行われてきた歴史的投資を顧みるとともに、増加し続けるエネルギー利用について考えます。環境に優しい低炭素システムへの移行がどのような影響をもたらすのか、さまざまな再生可能エネルギー資源から電力を生産する未来やエネルギー利用における原子力の役割にも目を向けます。
　　

• Offers an accessible overview of how we get the energy we use every day
• Describes the main fuels used and how they are transported, converted into electricity, and distributed
• Considers the environmental impact of our current reliance on fossil fuels
• Examines the role of renewable energy systems today and looks to greener, low-carbon energy systems for the future

          
Modern societies require energy systems to provide energy for cooking, heating, transport, and materials processing, as well as for electricity generation. Energy systems include the primary fuel, its conversion, and transport to the point of use. In many cases this primary fuel is still a fossil fuel, a one-use resource derived from a finite supply within our planet, causing considerable damage to the environment. After 300 years of increasing reliance on fossil fuels, particularly coal, it is becoming ever clearer that the present energy systems need to change.
           
In this Very Short Introduction Nick Jenkins explores our historic investment in the exploitation of fossil energy resources and their current importance, and discusses the implications of our increasing rate of energy use. He considers the widespread acceptance by scientists and policy makers that our energy systems must reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and looks forward to the radical changes in fuel technology that will be necessary to continue to provide energy supplies in a sustainable manner, and extend access across the developing world. Considering the impact of changing to an environmentally benign and low-carbon energy system, Jenkins also looks at future low-carbon energy systems which would use electricity from a variety of renewable energy sources, as well as the role of nuclear power in our energy use.