Ustream

With latest reports predicting that we'll reach Peak Oil in the next 3-5 years and with oil prices more volatile than ever - reaching their peak in 2008 at almost $200 a barrel - will the oil crisis soon take over from the financial crisis as the world's most pressing concern and what exactly are we doing about it?

While the jury is still out on whether or not we really are heading for Peak Oil, it seems that the end of "easy oil" could indeed be in sight if the latest industry reports are to be believed, even with the recent discoveries of oil fields off Brasil and Cuba. And with political barriers preventing the exploitation of oil in Nigeria, Iraq and Russia to name but some of the oil-rich countries, it seems that the search for alternative energy is now more pressing than ever.

While the world economic crisis has significantly slowed down global oil consumption and sent prices plummeting to an all-time low, is there now a danger that we are no longer feeling the urgency to address the situation as we should be? Does a solution really depend on the ability of the market to adjust? And are we investing enough time and resources in looking for viable alternatives?

And if oil prices do shoot up again, and gas-rich Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran become increasingly powerful, what are the implications for the new world order?

Jeremy Leggett is founder and Chairman of Solarcentury, the UK's largest solar solutions company, and SolarAid, a charity set up with Solarcentury profits. He is author of The Carbon War and Half Gone.

Dr Manouchehr Takin is a Senior Petroleum Upstream Analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies. His activities at the Centre include special studies on the oil and gas scene in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the North Sea and oil and gas services industry in the Middle East. Before joining the Centre in 1990, Dr Takin spent nine years in Vienna as Senior Research Officer at the OPEC Secretariat analys ...