UKERC Energy 2050 report launched

This week I honestly thought there was no going to be no chance for me to get a newsletter out as today is the only day I've been in the office. However, there has simply been too much going on for me not to broadcast it.

Of course the most important event was the launch of the UKERC 2050 Energy report yesterday. Nearly 350 people were registered for the event and over 200 attended. The audience were thrilled by a succession of talks by the authors and insightful commentary by invited guests. The audience were provoked by a series of electronic polls an there were some very interesting answers. In due course we'll put these on the website, but as taster we found that 72% of our audience thought that the UK would achieve only a 60% or lower reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, despite the fact that 31% believed that a >90% emissions reduction was technically and economically feasible. There was also a full and frank discussion between the audience and speakers and I know that we have gleaned a number of excellent ideas for research in Phase II.

I'm sure some of you are interested in what the report actually says, so I have repeated the key messages, summarised by Professor Jim Skea, below:

• Achieving a resilient low-carbon energy system in the UK is technically and economically feasible at an affordable cost
• There are multiple pathways to a low-carbon economy. A key trade-off is the speed of reduction in energy demand versus the decarbonisation of energy supply
• Driving down energy demand plays brings multiple benefits. It insures against: The possible failure of key technologies to deliver; Social resistance to the use of certain supply side technologies; and Price shocks and import dependence
• Aggressive promotion of energy efficiency and conservation technologies is the least cost means of driving down energy demand

For the detail I strongly recommend that you read the full report.

In addition to the launch event there was also a media briefing event on Wednesday organised through the Science Media Centre. This event registered a huge amount of interest and a number of stories in the popular media. I've dedicated the news section of NERN to this but for those interested the pieces in the Times (and also here), Reuters and the FT were all good.

In addition to the UKERC 2050 report launch (and the following celebrations) this week also saw the last workshop of Carbon Crucible. Our participants worked on their project proposal in a workshop in Oxford and have generated 14 ideas so far. At UKERC and NESTA we are now turning our attention to how we might continue Carbon Crucible in the future. If anyone has any ideas for UK, EU or international funding schemes that we might tap into then please them to me. You can also post me large bags of money as well if you feel so inclined…

Elsewhere in the news I'm sure many of you will have seen the press release from DECC regarding carbon capture and storage. The intent can be summarised as follows - No new coal without CCS demonstration from day one. Alongside the Government's ongoing competition to build a post-combustion demonstrator, up to three further projects including pre-combustion technology, will be funded by a new levy mechanism. This strikes me as a major new development and a very clear message about the future of coal.