Phasing out cars and vans from UK towns and cities is one recommendation from the Energy 2050 project – a blueprint for cutting emissions whilst ensuring a reliable energy supply.
Carbon must be removed from the UK's electricity sector by 2050 if the government is to meet its exacting 80 per cent emissions reductions targets. But this is achievable, according to a report from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) funded by the Research Councils UK Energy Programme.
The report outlines several scenarios for the UK’s future, ranging from faint-hearted 40 per cent emissions reductions to ambitious 90 per cent cuts. Also included were scenarios based on swift decisive action now and the cheapest options.
The report states, ‘it should be particularly concerning to policymakers that these least-cost...scenarios do not produce decarbonisation scenarios… anywhere near compatible with the European Union's renewables directive.’
The directive requires at least 15 per cent of UK energy to come from renewables by 2020.
The report says decarbonising the electricity system is the top priority, because this gives oil-hungry sectors like transport an alternative supply, quickly reducing demand for carbon further.
But carbon-free electricity generation need not mean using less electricity. Alternatives to carbon-emitting technologies are nuclear power, wind and wave generation and coal plants fitted with carbon capture and storage systems.
The Energy 2050 project, which began in 2006, recommends raising the price of an allowance to emit one tonne of carbon to around £200 by 2050 – 15 times the current EU price. But this shoots to £300-350 per tonne if governments delay taking action.
Shifting to a low carbon economy will have many economic effects, with the impact rising steeply as targets become more stringent. The cost of changing lifestyles and becoming more energy efficient, installing more insulation in homes for example, ranges from £5 billion to £52 billion by 2050.
Lifestyle changes could dramatically reduce these costs. The report calls for the government to phase out petrol and diesel cars and vans in urban centres by 2050.
Energy efficiency is a cost-effective way of reducing energy demand and carbon emissions. Halving energy use in homes is possible through efficiency improvements and lifestyle change.
Professor Jim Skea, research director at UKERC said: “UK energy policy goals are extraordinarily ambitious. Meeting them will require efforts well beyond the bounds of historical experience.
“By looking at the energy system in the round, our researchers have shown not only that the goals can be met, but that it is possible to reconcile them with wider technological, social and environmental changes,” he added.