The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) panel of nine members was formed in 2008 with the aim of advising the UK Government on ‘setting and meeting carbon budgets and on preparing for the impacts of climate change’. I have a particular interest in their activities because firstly, my research into climatic constraints on biodiversity requires current knowledge of broad scale climate information and secondly, one of the committee members, Brain Hoskins is the director of my funding body, the Grantham Institute of Climate Change.
This week CCC launched a new energy review at my University to which I attended. The session was chaired by Lord Adair Turner who clearly set out the findings of the report. A clear statement was made, renewable energy resources such as wind, solar and geothermal heat as well as nuclear and CCS (carbon capture and storage) could contribute a significant portion of the UKs energy demands by the year 2030/2050. I would paraphrase the rest of the talk but he summarises rather succinctly:
"The focus now should be creating a stable investment climate for renewables, making longer-term commitments to support less mature technologies, and putting in place incentives to deliver significantly increased investment in renewable power and heat generation required over the next decade."
Most of the crowd at the Imperial-hosted event were politicians however scientists were also present. Forging a strong link between the two disciplines will enable pioneering research to be implemented into effective climate policies. More information on CC and their recent report can be found at the CCC website.
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