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Certainly, the title is exciting at a time when the oil price has reached a new high. It seems it is high time for the world to exploit renewable energy sources, ranging from solar power, wind power, hydro/micro hydropower and biomass to biofuels for transportation. In 2006, about 18 per cent of global final energy consumption came from renewables.

While calling on Southeast Asia to jump on the bandwagon,  Detlef Loy from Loy Consulting Group highlighted Germany's plans to increase the use of renewable energy.

It was impressive. While Thailand's 15-year power development plan has been started and runs to 2022 with a proposal for the country's first nuclear power plants, Germany is amending its Renewable Energy Sources Act, which opts for greater use of renewable energy from now until 2050 as nuclear power is phased out.

While nuclear power will end by 2022, coal will gradually disappear, offshore wind power will start next year and renewable energy will be imported from North Africa.

SK Chou, executive director of the National University of Singapore's Energy Studies Institute, was the next person to support the bright prospects for the renewable energy sector.

As oil prices are expected to go up, he said, "renewable energy is the obvious solution to raise energy security in Southeast Asia". Before leaving the stage, while saying that this could be a good solution for lower imports, he said it would also help reduce C02 emissions.

Just before the seminar participants left the function room for lunch, they had to munch on artificial food prepared by Shabbir Gheewala of the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment.

On the stage, Gheewala said something that may shock even non-governmental organisations. I spotted one NGO representative, but unfortunately he left the room before Gheewala took the stage. His speech simply encouraged everyone to rethink whether all renewable energy is helping the environment.

The conventional thinking is we should move towards biofuels as they are a source of clean energy. The use of biodiesel reduces emissions of CO2 and other hydrocarbons by 20-40 per cent.

But back to Gheewala. Consumers have not taken into account the equipment used in the harvesting of crops, the energy used in the conversion of such plants to biofuel and the trucks required in the distribution process. Parties also need to take into account the emissions from the transformation of land for such biofuel plantations.

Gheewala just gave the participants a very tough question. But as the oil price is this high, I guess everyone is ready to bypass environmental concerns.

Who will think about the next storm, when their stomachs are not yet full?