Mr. Lund accepts that, in the future, his customers will use less of the oil and gas that his company produces. Yet even he is concerned that politicians are in danger of losing touch with reality in their push for a low-carbon world. Weaning the world off oil and gas, he says, will be harder than many people realise.

True/False

A prospect of a low-carbon world is easy to be realised from political viewpoint.

Weaning the world off oil and gas, he says, will be harder than many people realise. 'Governments are moving away from the energy source that our entire civilisation is built on: hydrocarbon. That is not an easy task,' he says,

True/False

Gradual shift from using hydrocarbon energy in our life is an easy task with governmental support.

By 2050, the world's population is set to grow to 9 billion, from about 6.8 billion today, while economic development lifts hundreds of millions out of poverty, enable them to buy cars and air conditioning. That creates massive upward pressure on global energy demand.

True/False

Economic development is believed to bring both benefits and challenges to the world.

The second reality is the effectiveness of hydrocarbon as energy resources that can be easily extracted, transported, stored and used. Few of today's alternatives offer anything line as attractive a combination of characteristics.

True/False

In order to be widespread, alternative energy needs to have all of the positive characteristics of hydrocarbon.

Mr. Lund does not deny the science of climate change, and says there is an 'urgent' need to respond to it. But he does want to stop responses that he thinks will be counter-productive. 'The debate is sometimes too simplistic, and overstates the opportunity for quickly changing to a low-carbon economy,' he says.

True/False

According to Mr. Lund, the issue of climate change should be addressed with more care and consideration.

'Some people seem to believe that technology can be decided politically: it cannot,' he says. 'Technology advances best when you have competitive companies working on concrete projects.' That means setting a price for carbon, whether through a carbon tax or, as seems more political feasible, an emissions trading scheme, and letting industry respond freely to that price come up with profitable solutions.

True/False

Politicians are assumed to best support technological development in energy industry by removing all competition in the industry.

'Oil and gas are finite resources, and we should expect that over time they will become more expensive, so we should use them carefully,' Mr. Lund says.

True/False

Mr. Lund suggests that the limited storage of oil and gas causes the increasing price of energy consumed.

There is till plenty of profit to be made from Statoil's traditional business. Its gas reserves in Norway and around the world can also play an important role as a "transition fuel", providing a lower-carbon alternative to coal-fired power generation while other forms of energy are built up.

True/False

Statoil is predicted to lose much of its profit due to the 'transition fuel' trend.