Fossil fuels will remain an indispensable part of the global energy supply for at least the next 50 years, so a means must be found to burn them without pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

According to Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator for the Financial Times: "(Just) as the civilization of ancient Rome was built on slaves, ours is built on fossil fuels. What happened in the beginning of the 19th century was not an industrial revolution but an energy revolution. Putting carbon into the atmosphere is what we do."

But there is no necessary connection between using fossil fuels and belching CO2 skyward. In the future, carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects could sever the link, enabling fossil fuels to be burned safely in power plants while storing the emissions underground.