Panel Chair Pierre Gadonniex, chairman of the World Energy Council and honorary chairman of Électricité de France, opened the discussion saying the market alone does not give the right signals, and the council decided three years ago to conduct this assessment to determine the role of policies. It found different parts of the world are different, and it is difficult to decide what is acceptable.

"We've tackled the issues of environment, safety, cost and acceptance. We have found people can accept costs if there is positive growth and employment," he said.

John Drzik, chief executive officer of Oliver Wyman in the United Kingdom, said his firm, which cooperated with the Council, looked at energy from the point of view of stability, affordability and cleanliness, and found no country is best at all three. Switzerland has stable energy, Canada affordable energy and Brazil clean energy.

He found policy makers "need to embrace these three dimensions holistically," not separately.

The report also said more effort was needed on the demand side. "Energy efficiency is the best permanent change," he added.

Asked by Gadonniex if there was a relevant role in energy production for the private section, Drzik said, "The energy sector is good for private investment." One opportunity is for private companies to encourage public entities to reduce investment risk and create a better environment for investment. At the same time, private companies must realize that there will be political risk. They should invest on a risk-adjusted cost basis.

In energy efficiency, he added, private industry has the opportunity to develop high-efficiency solutions.

Dadi Zhou, director general emeritus and senior researcher at the Energy Research Institute in China, said his organization saw opportunity in energy policy. China planned to improve energy efficiency by 20% from 2006 through 2010 and by 3% to 4% a year in the next decade.

On the supply side, another 300 gW of hydropower are possible, along with up to 70 gW of nuclear and 80 gW of power from natural gas by 2010. A heavy investment in cleaner, more efficient energy gives China the opportunity to develop those products and techniques to distribute to the rest of the world, he said.

Fatih Birol, chief economist and director of the Office of the Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency, said energy eff iciency is a concept everyone supports. The challenge for government is changing the attitudes of consumers. He said, strong price signals will induce change. Higher prices will lower consumption, and, in developing countries, strong subsidies may not be the right long-term answer. This could encourage energy use. Strict, clear standards from government will assure efficient use of energy.

In transportation, he said one billion cars are operating now and another billion will operate by 2035. "The next billion will be critical to energy security and emissions,"” he said. Regulation can help determine how those next billion vehicles operate.

In the area of energy security, most countries still use coal-fired power plants that will last 50 or 60 years, Birol said. Some areas need cheap electricity, but the big challenge for public policy is how to supply that electricity.

Nebojsa Nakicenovic, deputy director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, said the study's number one goal was to determine how to meet Millennium goals, including universal access to electricity by 2030.

The number two goal is to reduce greenhouse gases by 50% by the end of the century, or 2ºC a year. Carbon capture use of biomass could do it, he said.

Third, investment is needed. Investments now stand at $700 billion a year and "We will need $1.5 billion." Cost, however, is not the only side of the issue. Sustained energy development could avoid a cost of $800 billion, Nakicenovic added.