Meeting Copenhagen targets is dependent on bold and sustained funding of technology development says EPSRC Chief Exec Dave Delpy.
Countries are due to lay their national 2020 carbon reduction targets on the table by 31 January under agreements made in Copenhagen. The UK plans to make a 34 percent cut in emissions on 1990 levels by 2020.
The UK leads the world when it comes to investment in energy efficient technologies research, but Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Chief Executive Dave Delpy believes that more is needed:
“Scientific and engineering research has already brought us fuel cells, marine, wind and solar power solutions, but more investment is needed to develop the capabilities of different solutions if we are to meet our carbon emission targets by 2020 and limit the impact of climate change. And looking forward we need sustained funding of fundamental research now in order to reach our goals for 2050.”
According to Ofgem, the gas and electricity authority, UK emissions are falling 0.5% per year, but a 2-3% reduction is needed to meet targets. To tackle the problem, the Committee on Climate Change wants more investment in low carbon technology.
Emerging solutions to sustainable living funded by EPSRC include:
- A £6.9 million research partnership with E.ON to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies that could drastically cut CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel power stations. CCS technology enables carbon dioxide to be captured from power stations which is then stored underground to prevent it from entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
- New energy capture machine the ‘Oyster’ harnesses the power of the sea to generate electricity and is already being tested on a commercial scale. Ten Oysters could power 100,000 homes and should be hooked up to the National Grid by 2013.
- New LED lighting that can be produced for a tenth of the current price could become widely available in the next five years and could cut the proportion of UK electricity used for lighting from 20% to 5%.
- A low carbon shipping initiative led by a consortium of UK universities in response to concern that by 2050 emissions from shipping could rise by 20-30%. Tristan Smith of University College London says: “We hope our research will be used to guide regulation development and to decrease carbon emissions produced by the world’s shipping lanes.”
Delpy also comments on the opportunities presented by the low carbon economy, which is currently generating £107 billion a year in the UK and employing 880,000 people.
“The UK is well placed to gain a significant share of the global market for low carbon goods and services, estimated to be worth an estimated £3 trillion worldwide. We can achieve this by building on the momentum gained by our funding in strategic areas and by working with key partners, such as the Technology Strategy Board and the Energy Technologies Institute, to ensure rapid exploitation of our research.”
Research Councils UK Energy Programme led by EPSRC is investing more than £530 million in research in the UK to develop low carbon technologies to fight the effects of climate change.
EPSRC is bringing together engineers and scientists with industry partners including the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), E.ON UK, EDF Energy and many more.