Is There a Risk of a World of Abundant Energy?

This week’s programme is a thought experiment: What would the world be like if energy became superabundant and very cheap?

Energy is vital for every aspect of our society, and the energy cost of extraction, processing, manufacture and transport is priced into every product we buy. Today’s energy crisis is having a huge impact, from affecting diplomatic relations between nations to the availability of food.

How can our energy systems evolve and what could cheap abundant energy mean for us, our relationship to the natural world, and each other?

We discuss these issues and more with;

Rachel Kyte CMG, Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University, who has previously worked for the UN on sustainability issues.

Jim Watson, Professor of Energy Policy at UCL. He’s advised government on the low carbon energy transition.

And Dr Hannah Richie, Head of Research at Our World in Data, based at Oxford University, who looks at food, agriculture and energy in relation to global development trends.

BBC Inside Science is produced in partnership with the Open University.