What measures are being taken to help the UK hit net zero
23rd October 2019 | Commercial Energy
Thanks to the fact the UK was producing more than 500 million tonnes of CO2 on an annual basis, the government sought help from the Committee on Climate Change in how they could actively tackle the harming contribution to global warming. The decision has been reached that CO2 emissions must be entirely stopped by the year 2050 in order to prevent further damaging effects. For this reason, there are now plans for the UK to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by the time we reach 2050, in a move that would see it take the accolade of being the cleanest country across the globe.
The UK’s climate minister, Claire Perry, pointed out the BBC News, “The report was a really stark and sober piece of work – a good piece of work. Now we know what the goal is, and we know what some of the levers are. But for me, the constant question is: what is the cost and who’s going to bear that, both in the UK and in the global economy. The question is: what does the government need to do, where can the private sector come in, and what technologies will come through?”
Net zero
The Imperial College London reported statistics regarding the capacity of renewable energy in the UK surpassed that of fossil fuels for the first time. With the amount of renewable capacity trebling in the same five-year period that fossil fuels decreased by one-third, the capacity of biomass, hydropower, solar and wind power hit 41.9 gigawatts and the capacity of gas, coal and oil-fired power plants recorded in at 41.2 gigawatts between July and September.
Iain Staffell, the doctor who conducted the research for Imperial College London, pointed out, “Britain’s power system is slowly but surely walking away from fossil fuels, and [the quarter between July and September] saw a major milestone on the journey.”
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