Category: World Service
Date: 25.01.2006
Printable version
91Èȱ¬ World Service is focusing on energy for one week in February.
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Its mini-season, Fuelling the Future, from Saturday 11 to Saturday 18 February, is about production and consumption, the intersection of energy and policy, global development and its consequences.
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The season, running across news, business and science programme strands, will look at oil, its production and fluctuating price.
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It will investigate how, if cheap energy sources are running out, the developed countries of the G8 and the large developing economies of China, India and Brazil will manage to fuel their future development.
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Fuelling the Future will examine the link between energy and policy, asking if and how energy security influences the United States' foreign policy.
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It will weigh up arguments for and against different energy sources, assess their effect on the environment and consider viable alternatives to relying on oil, coal and nuclear power.
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News
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Throughout the week, Newshour from 2.00 to 3.00pm and The World Today from 7.05 to 8.00am report from four different locations:
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Nigeria - finding out how the country is coping with its lack of refineries and the mismanagement of its oil resources;
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Qatar - analysts predict that US demand for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) will increase by 42% by 2025. Qatar has the third largest resource of LNG in the world behind Russia and Iran;
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China - plans to build more coal facilities to cater for its large projected increase in energy consumption;
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Russia - how the exporter of energy is making plans for its economy post-oil.
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In Postcards from the Future, broadcast in news programmes through the week, people outline their vision of how the world will look in 20 years' time - the energy we will need, the cars we will drive and the houses in which we will live.
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Analysis tackles some of the big energy issues from Monday 13 to Friday 17 February from 11.30 to 11.45am.
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They include:
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The amount of energy the world will need in 2050, who'll supply it, who'll use it and how much it will cost;
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How countries will ensure their energy sources are secure;
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Investigating the new power brokers supplying energy;
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The future of oil, gas and coal;
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The arguments for and against nuclear power.
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Julian Pettifer reports from the US for Assignment, about innovative initiatives to develop alternative sources of energy on Thursday 16 February (9.05-9.30am).
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One Planet visits a North Sea oil rig off the coast of Norway on Thursday 16 February (10.05-10.30am).
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As the rigs exhaust oil reserves they are being used to store carbon, a new - some say expensive - way of dealing with carbon dioxide.
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Have Your Say (formerly Talking Point) takes the energy theme to a world audience on Sunday 19 February (2.05-3.00pm).
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Business
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Mark Gregory goes to India for a daily World Business Report on the country's energy needs and dilemmas from 4.30 to 4.45pm -
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India's six nuclear power stations service less than three per cent of the country's power needs. It's planned to hugely increase this capacity in the next few years.
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This is controversial because when India builds a nuclear power station, outsiders question whether the real motive is to develop nuclear weapons rather than create power.
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Mark Gregory talks to the movers and shakers of India's nuclear debate.
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Like China and the West, India is scouring the world for new sources of energy but so far hasn't done very well in securing deals. Mark Gregory investigates.
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Mark visits TERI, an Indian environmental organisation based near Delhi, which is developing energy efficient, cheap sources of power for India's poverty stricken rural areas.
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TERI is at the centre of India's debate about appropriate energy and minimising emissions.
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India has a rapidly growing car industry. Mark visits a Bangalore company that has developed a clean and cheap electric car.
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Despite fast-growing demand for energy in India, there's very little investment in building new capacity.
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That's partly because foreign investors have bitter memories of incidents such as the failure of Enron to build a new power plant near Mumbai. Mark seeks out prospective foreign investors.
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Peter Day investigates Canada's black gold rush in Global Business on Friday 17 February (9.05-9.30am).
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Alberta is currently experiencing a boom as soaring oil prices make it economically viable to extract oil from its Tar Sands.
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The oil is expensive to produce, environmentally untenable and the cause of tension in regional Canada about who profits from the billions of dollars it will bring in. Alberta is now very rich indeed but at what cost?
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Science
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Health Matters - if we are to use more nuclear power in future we have to find more radioactive minerals to fuel the stations.
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Uranium mining creates terrible hazards for miners and people living in the vicinity of mines. Miners have a very high rate of lung cancer, due to exposure to radon.
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Health Matters on Monday 13 February (10.05-10.30am) explores the risks to people involved in the uranium mining industry, and discovers how companies and governments around the world are protecting their workers.
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Go Digital - many villages in remote parts of the world, and people living in the poorer parts of cities have little electricity or none at all.
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They are not linked up to a national grid, or may only receive locally generated power at certain times of day.
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Gareth Mitchell describes the latest attempts to connect up everyone in the world, visiting projects in South Africa and Angola that are bringing electricity to remote areas on Tuesday 14 February (10.05-10.30am).
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He talks to the developers of the Nndiyo system, a stripped down computer that operates on very little power and looks at whether fuel cell technology is ready to run mobile phones, PDAs and even laptops.
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Science in Action - Richard Black reports on a 91Èȱ¬ News Online survey of energy expenditure around the world on Friday 17 February (10.05-10.30am).
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Discovery - Richard Black assesses how science and technology are helping to uncover new sources of energy.
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He asks scientists to what extent it is possible to fuel the future with the energy sources currently at our disposal in a four-part series from Wednesday 15 February (10.05-10.30am).
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Tri-Media Debate
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A 91Èȱ¬ World television debate, The World Debate: Fuelling the Future, will be broadcast on 91Èȱ¬ World Service radio and online on Sunday 12 February (6.05-6.45pm).
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The debate is chaired by 91Èȱ¬ World's main anchor Nik Gowing.
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Participants include His Excellency Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, Oman's Minister of Commerce and Industry; Walid Khadduri, Former Editor-in-Chief, Middle East Economic Survey; Dr Kevin Rosner, Senior Fellow, Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, Washington; and Dr Yang Fuqiang, Chief Representative, The Energy Foundation, Beijing.
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Website
- the online site www.bbcnews.com/energy will be up and running from Wednesday 25 January.
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91Èȱ¬ World Service Press Office
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