Many US businesspeople believe the world is nearing the end of its dependence on fossil fuels, an American management writer said yesterday.

Mr Tom Peters, the high-profile author and management theorist, told The Irish Times that US corporates had been expecting "something like" the current round of oil price hikes for a long time.

"I spoke to the American Institute of Architects about a year ago and everything was about smart buildings, buildings which conserved energy and so on," he said.

"Even in the United States, which has opted out of Kyoto at this stage of the game, there is a huge movement among practical businesspersons who basically see the end of the age of hydrocarbons coming."

At the same time, in the three years since the attacks on New York's World Trade Centre, he said that US businesses had worked hard at managing their exposure to risk, including a foreseeable rise in oil prices driven by Middle East volatility. "Although no-one could have foreseen the spike of the last few days," he added.

But Mr Peters stressed that the US way of life would continue to revolve around driving, and warned that no matter what the outcome of the race for the White House, nobody would be able to try to cut consumption by increasing the country's petrol prices.

"We scream blue murder when the price of a gallon of gas goes from $1.95 to $2.02, and you're paying that for a litre," he said.

Mr Peters, who made his name over two decades ago with his book In Search of Excellence was in Dublin yesterday to give a lecture to the Irish Management Institute (IMI). The Irish Times Ltd was one of the event's sponsors.

He recently published a sequel to the book called Re-imagine: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age. The book's basic message is that corporations and individuals who do not respond to volatility are doomed.

Mr Peters argued that most workers now accept that the concept of a job for life is dead, and instead work in "portfolio careers" where individuals change jobs and careers five or six times in their working life.

He said young people no longer expect lifetime employment. "In American kids, and I suspect Irish kids, that expectation has disappeared. Those people now understand that they have to re-invent themselves."