Rising demand for energy, food and raw materials by 2.5 billion Chinese and Indians is already having ripple effects worldwide.

The question for oil executives is whether you're in the oil business or the energy business.

If tomorrow the Chinese decide not to supply the world with raw materials, the pharma industry would collapse.

My bet is that China is indisputably number one in renewable energy within five years. They now have key state sponsored support and one advantage of a centralized economy is that these massive projects can be put into effect very quickly.

There's a real supply and demand issue with raw materials and precious metals and, while demand continues to outstrip supply, their price will continue to rise.

The prices of raw materials do not fluctuate directly with the labour cost of producing them.