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Monday’s conference was all about understanding how the energy sector — through the evolution of technology — will both defend itself and further transform to ensure its future relevance and competitiveness.

It was about what’s possible, and not, as environmental organizations like to point out, what the industry is doing wrong.

It was fitting the one-day event took place inside Gasoline Alley at Heritage Park, replete with logos of former energy companies and antique cars, to the e-hybrids and Teslas parked outside that illustrated where the auto industry is today.

Those in attendance learned there are real constraints when it comes to achieving the transition to a new energy future, from the need to develop new technologies and crack the nut of battery storage, to the reality of an almost perfect correlation between economic growth and energy use. In geeky statistical speak, the R-Squared coefficient is almost one.

That means as the developing world continues to grow, industrialize and urbanize, the consumption of fossil fuels — because they are common, cheap, reliable and dense in terms of their energy content — will be a dominant source of the world’s energy needs to 2050.

Which throws some cold water on the COP 21 climate goals.

Steven Koonin, director of the Centre for Urban Science and Progress at NYU, said average per capita emissions today are 5 million tonnes a year. If we want reduce global emissions, that number must drop to 1 million tonnes per year, which is where India is today, he said.