Expert studies, however, indicate that at the rate of present global consumption, most fossil fuel supply will be significantly depleted within the next two decades. With or without that depletion, global economic development cannot be sustained on conventional energy sources indefinitely. Since global development and stability must ultimately be a function of rural development, future hemispheric development is an interrelation rather than a product of rural development. One by no means assumes that immediate and effective response in this context will be easy. Harnessing the engines of growth to ensure development, especially rural development, has always been a difficult task in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Barriers appear formidable.
However, many of these barriers can be gradually overcome if appropriate public policy can be elaborated and implemented in relevant sectors as they relate to rural development. In most instances, public policy can be important also in the nurturing of growth. Such sectoral policies in the area of electricity production for rural areas will ultimately be successful and highly profitable in the long run because they will form the basis for expanding other sectors of the economy into the rural communities. Examples of such policies favoring expansion in the past have been the case of basic industries in Brazil, textiles in Colombia, maguiladores in Mexico, tourism in Barbados. In the context of twentieth century circumstances, there is need to correct inherent imbalances and inequalities in the opportunities for sustainable development and the distribution of the benefits of development initiatives.