The good news is that on 8 November the International Energy Agency released its 2011 “World Energy Outlook.”

While it will cheer nuclear advocates, overall the report makes for grim reading.

Pulling no punches, the report states at the outset, “There are few signs that the urgently needed change in direction in global energy trends is underway.”

Clean coal is likely to remain a chimera rather than a real solution to carbon emissions, a new study suggests, because the much-touted process of carbon capture and sequestration simply won’t prove to be feasible.

Like all world economies, India does not today have particularly good options regarding its energy needs. In the short term, it has little choice but to ramp up purchasing of fossil fuels.

Is the term “clean coal” an oxymoron? That’s a hot question for politicians, the energy industry and environmentalists, alike. While the words seem intuitively clear, the meaning of the term, as well as the feasibility of improving coal’s environmental impact, are in question.