As part of the 2008 Annual Conference of the Ifri Energy program, this background paper written by Coby van der Linde, director of the Clingendael International Energy, provided the participants with insight and analysis. Two other background papers have been written for this conference by Jan Horst Keppler, Professor of Economics at Paris-Dauphine University and Senior Research associate with the Ifri Energy program and Roland Götz, research Fellow at SWP, Berlin. These papers will be part of a monography to be published in the coming weeks. This monography will include as well a synthesis of the results of the conference by Jacques Lesourne, Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Ifri Energy program