Hydrogen Fuel Cells and Alternatives in the Transport Sector Issues for Developing Countries

The United Nations Conference on environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June of 1992 put ‘protection of the atmosphere’ on the global agenda. Since then two public debates have ensued with regard to ‘who is responsible for airborne pollutants’ and ‘who should pay the price of cutting back’. Both of these debates are seriously flawed: the first, because it creates a view of the problem as a hostile dichotomy between 'you or us'; the second, because it frames the debate in terms of exclusionary alternatives, such as the idea that cutting back on our consumption of hydrocarbons can only be accomplished at the expense of something else, growth, for example or equity. As this paper illustrates, there is always a range of choices. It is how we frame the problem that widens or narrows these.