Real progress on carbon cuts is just a pipe dream

An IChemE (Institution of Chemical Engineers) product story

Edited by the Processingtalk editorial team Jun 27, 2005

The UK stands little chance of meeting its long-term CO2 reduction targets according to a well-argued feature article that will appear in the July issue of The Chemical Engineer magazine

The UK stands little chance of meeting its long-term CO2 reduction targets according to a well-argued feature article that will appear in the July issue of The Chemical Engineer magazine.

A pragmatic scenario based on available technologies suggests that achieving 25% CO2 reduction by 2025 will only be possible with considerable government intervention, whilst the 60% target for 2050 remains near impossible to reach.

The authors, including the well-known chemical engineer and energy commentator Professor Ian Fells, argue that the ongoing expansion of the UK's renewable energy generation capability will do little more than meet the anticipated growth in electricity demand even if the government's energy white paper target is met.

The feature analyses the UK's energy challenge starting from the premise that simple and relatively low-grade technologies can be deployed immediately to achieve significant CO2 reduction.

The authors' scenario is then extended to include a programme of rapid investment in a range of additional technologies that do not require significant technological advance but do require major capital investment and are likely to prove politically difficult.

Advanced technologies, such as hydrogen fuel-cells and nuclear fusion, are discounted as being out of reach in the short term.

Three major engineering projects, together capable of delivering a 25% cut in CO2 emissions, need to be implemented, including a major tidal barrage programme, early action to replace one third of existing coal-fired power stations with clean coal and carbon capture technology and controversially, a nuclear replacement programme based around the construction of new pressurised water reactors to maintain the existing carbon free contribution from nuclear power.

One of the goals of the 2003 Energy White Paper was "to put ourselves on a path to cut the UK CO2 emissions by some 60% by about 2050, with real progress by 2020." Fells and his co-authors have revealed that the notion of real progress seems little more than a pipe dream.