Specialists in finance and economics tend to think that an economic system can grow exponentially, ignoring the laws and constraints of physical systems. Politicians see the idea of economic growth as a panacea to social issues and poverty. Economic growth thus becomes the focus of global collective effort with energy systems provision following on as a consequence of this growth.The presentation will argue that this is the wrong way around, that in order to solve social, political and ecological problems, we need first to think about and address energy provision and in particular the power capacity of the energy delivery system. In other words, if we build sustainable power capacity first, then human ingenuity will find a way to harness that energy for the collective benefit. 

Presented byDudley Baylis Director Bridge Capital Refco (Pty) Ltd

Dudley’s role at Bridge Capital is to find innovative ways to think about and finance energy infrastructure implementation. He is a community minded social entrepreneur and activist and has a personal commitment to find ways to catalyze investment in clean energy power capacity. In the last 30 years, he has been a derivatives and commodities trader, miner, project manager, builder, farmer, engineer, property developer, quantity surveyor, project financier and business systems analyst. Since 2003 he has been dedicated to the problem of climate change and the role that energy systems can play in alleviating or mitigating its effects and he believes that finance is the core issue that needs to be resolved.