eg magazine sustainability, resource efficiency & climate change

The book Energy 2050 – Making the Transition to a Secure Low-Carbon Energy System, published by Earthscan, draws together research undertaken as part of UKERC’s ambitious Energy 2050 project, exploring in detail the factors which can help or hinder the attainment of the UK’s energy goals. Taking a scenario-based approach, it highlights that:

·         the UK’s climate change targets are ambitious but, if the will is there, can be achieved with relatively little impact  on GDP.

·        By 2050, or earlier, the UK electricity sector must be almost completely decarbonised and the use of oil virtually eliminated.

·        New and improved low-carbon technologies need a reliable carbon price. By 2050, a market signal of £200/tonne C0₂ or more, 15 times the current EU carbon price, will be needed. 

·        There are fundamental trade-offs between the pace of electricity decarbonisation and the extent to which energy demand is driven down. More ambitious energy efficiency measures have wider advantages: they would reduce exposure to volatile international energy markets, making it easier to ride out supply interruptions and insuring against the risk that key supply side technologies do not deliver

Uniquely, the book explores in depth a range of factors that could enhance or impede progress towards GHG targets:

·         Accelerated investment in energy research and development would pay off and would bring long-term benefits by reducing the cost of meeting ambitious targets.

·         If environmental concerns constrain the deployment of key energy technologies, the cost of meeting targets will be pushed up and there will be a greater need for demand side measures. A very wide range of technologies including nuclear, fossil fuel-fired generation and renewables - could potentially be affected by environmental concerns.

·         Prospects for lifestyle change are very hard to assess. However, voluntary changes in energy-use behaviour could make the achievement of ambitious targets much easier, and less costly.

The book concludes by identifying the policy changes needed to push towards a secure low-carbon economy. Extending carbon pricing, addressing barriers to the take-up of energy efficiency and targeting energy R&D efforts will be critical elements. Above all, with a liberalised energy system, the key challenge is to design energy markets so that the UK is established as an attractive place for investment in low carbon energy.

UKERC Research Director and Editor Professor Jim Skea 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".

available to purchase from the Earthscan website