Energy and Feedstock “Stickiness”

Chapter 4 focuses on energy, on the phasing out of fossil fuels, and on the many hurdles in replacing fossil energy with green alternatives. The main focus is on the question of why the energy transition turns out to be so slow and causing so much of delays, conflicts, and resentment. While green energy presently accounts for near 40 percent of electric energy, the main pillars of green energy for the future, those of wind and solar, account for only a little more than two percent of total energy use. The term “stickiness” is used to describe mainly technical reasons for transitional delays. Four sectors of the modern economy (ammonia, plastics, concrete, and steel), all with a heavy greenhouse impact, add strongly to the stickiness problem.