genre: Feature Documentary & Book

When will the Great Recession truly recede and when will the advanced economies begin advancing again, preferably with the apparent momentum of the East?

Five years after the global financial disaster of 2007/8 no Western nation has fully recovered and many hover on the verge of recession or worse, despite trillions of dollars and euros being pumped into the economic system. Politicians and economists have failed to deliver robust economic recovery. Maybe something is missing?

The answer is contained in The Energy Trap: we cannot restart our economies with hundred dollar oil but for technical and political reasons the price of oil can’t fall below $100 for long enough to do any good either – and then there is the matter of carbon emissions. In this film we explain why and how we got into this dangerous situation and some of the ways we might escape this trap of our own making.

Written by Julian Darley, author of best-selling High Noon for Natural Gas and founder of Post Carbon Institute, and Chris Skrebowski, petroleum analyst and journalist, former planner with BP, the Saudi Oil Ministry, and editor of Petroleum Review. The film is produced by Celine Rich and awardwinning editor Miranda Watts and directed by Julian Darley.