NASA calls for radical reductions and urgent switch to renewables
CAT project will present solutions for Europe
A new report from NASA, released today, highlights the need for radical CO2 reduction targets and stresses the urgency of replacing fossil fuel energy such as coal with renewables.
James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, said that the European Union and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of fears they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem.
Along with other leading climate scientists, Hansen insists that the major obstacle to saving the planet is not technology. The good news, he said, is that reserves of fossil fuels have been exaggerated, so an alternative source of energy will have to be rapidly put in place in any case.
“The work of Hansen and others makes it blindingly clear. We have burnt quantities of carbon into the atmosphere that are already resulting in major climate damages. We can no longer contemplate stabilising the concentrations even higher than we currently have. Hansen’s call to the EU should be read with the utmost urgency and our response should be nothing less than a zero carbon Europe.
“The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) last year produced the Zero Carbon Britain report and is now coordinating a project entitled Zero Carbon Europe.
“We will be inviting contributions from research centres and think tanks regarding all aspects of Europe’s transition to a zero carbon community. We welcome Hansen’s calls to the EU and will be backing this up with a robust action plan to achieve a Zero Carbon Europe,” said co-author Tim Helweg-Larsen.
CAT to headline at Ireland’s leading annual event for sustainability
A symposium investigating post carbon cities, transition towns and sustainable communities will feature talks and workshops about CAT's ZeroCarbonBritain report at Dublin’s Cultivate Living and Learning Centre, 3–7 April 2008.
Paul Allen, CAT's Development Director, will present a set of strategies using an integrative approach to the problem of climate change.
This year, the 13th annual Convergence Festival focuses on talks from Paul and other leading international thinkers actively providing practical responses to the twin issues of resource depletion and climate change.
Published in 2007, ZeroCarbonBritain demonstrates how a nation can realistically eliminate fossil fuels within the next 20 years.
Paul said : “We have stumbled blindly into an emergency situation, and must immediately face up to our addiction to fossil fuels, embarking on a ‘detox’ to a zero carbon economy as quickly as possible.”
Paul will present sound proposals to build consensus amongst the international community in order to cultivate local action. John Gormley, the Irish Minister for the Environment, will launch the festival with an opening speech.
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CAT Development Director Paul Allen looks back at 2007
In 2007, scientists released a record number of climate change reports. For many the UN talks in Bali were meant to be the year’s highlight, yet despite this negotiating frenzy, and some bleak scientific warnings, the world still lacks firm greenhouse emissions reduction targets.
This year also marked the virtual extinction of the ‘contrarian’ climate change deniers – they were a notable absence in the Bali negotiations. However, instead of agreeing firm targets, the ‘Bali Roadmap’ initiated a two-year process, committing states to the principle of further emissions cuts to replace those in the Kyoto Protocol, and to concluding negotiations on those cuts by 2009. The EU pressed for a commitment of 25-40% emissions cuts by 2020 for industrialised nations, a bid that was implacably opposed by a bloc containing the US, Canada and Japan.
The ‘Bali Roadmap’ aims to build on the Kyoto process by using funds from international carbon trading to pay for mitigation measures such as sea walls, fresh water infrastructure, new crop varieties, mosquito nets and whatever else may be needed as the world warms and rainfall patterns change. But, in terms of agreeing targets, the route now leads to Poznan in Poland in a year's time, and to Copenhagen late in 2009 – there is certainly plenty to read during this, hopefully final leg of the journey.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 4th assessment report provides evidence that reducing global greenhouse gas emissions can be done at quite moderate costs, far less than the costs of failing to do so, affirming that “Delaying emission reductions significantly constrains the opportunities to achieve lower stabilisation levels and increase the risk of the more severe climate change impacts.” In short, really radical action must be taken now - if we are to avoid crossing a tipping point of 2°C in global mean temperature, beyond which we run the risk of irreversible, catastrophic feedback effects. 2°C inevitably becomes 3°C, releasing more carbon and pushing the temperature irreversibly up to 4°C and so on to climate chaos.
However, many climate scientists were concerned that the 4th IPCC report actually underestimates the seriousness of our situation because it only incorporates research published up to mid 2006. Carbon Equity’s The Big Melt report (see www.carbonequity.info) presented an overview of new trends in the behaviour of Arctic ice revealed this summer, showing the Antarctic ice shelf to be more sensitive to warming temperatures than previously thought. Its floating sea ice is headed towards rapid summer disintegration as early as 2013, a century ahead of the IPCC projections. Hence no further greenhouse gases should be released. We may even have to consider drastic action, at considerable cost to recapture existing atmospheric CO2.
We have now collated enough information to prove beyond reasonable doubt that is time for radical action – the emphasis for 2008 must shift from detailing the problem, to detailing the solution.
The Centre for Alternative Technology’s Zerocarbonbritain report was launched in July. The report aimed to integrate our detailed knowledge and experience into a national framework to address climate change and energy security while providing access to energy to a growing global population. Zerocarbonbritain demonstrated that we could reduce eliminate fossil fuels completely by 2027, reducing our greenhouse emissions from energy to zero if the correct drivers were put in place.
It is meaningless to compare our lifestyles today with those of a zero carbon future – as the most recent science has demonstrated, life as it is now will change - like it or not. More useful is the comparison between a future where we have been proactive and acted ahead of events, with a future where we have let events overtake us.
Rising to the challenge will entail a new approach to many of our current lifestyle choices. Pioneering new lifestyles in reducing emissions means ingenuity replaces apathy, and self-reliance replaces self-gratification, but perhaps most significantly, it might just deliver a rich sense of collective purpose and personal meaning, which we may find we have been craving for a very long time.
CAT supports Minister's plan for offshore turbines
Wind power key to a sustainable future
Energy Secretary John Huttton MP has announced a massive drive for offshore wind power, providing all the electricity for Britain’s homes by 2020.
The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) applauds the government for recognising the urgency of climate change and the potential of offshore wind farms in Britain’s future energy mix.
In its zerocarbonbritain report released earlier this year, CAT detailed how the UK could generate all its energy from renewable sources by 2027, meeting around 50% of this demand with offshore wind farms.
This would require approximately 140 offshore wind farms the size of the 1GW London Array spread out around our 8,000 mile coastline. This is more than four times the Government’s proposed 33GW from offshore wind.
Zerocarbonbritain details the policies and technologies that could reduce our emissions from fossil fuels to zero within 20 years. The report demonstrated how we could reduce our energy use by 50% through energy efficiency measures, then deploying a wide range of renewable energy technologies to meet the reduced demand.
“Crucially, we need to reduce our energy demand significantly in the first place,” CAT Engineering Consultant David Hood said. “The government plans to produce 20% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020 – but if we used energy more efficiently, we could produce around 40% of our total energy needs from renewables by this date, en route to becoming 100% renewable by 2027.
“Reaching zero carbon emissions is now clearly a scientific necessity; this report shows that doing so is technically possible – it now needs to become socially and politically thinkable,” he said.
On top of the offshore energy provision, approximately 30% of electricity would come from marine technologies such as tidal and wave power, and the rest from a mix of biomass-fuelled combined heat and power (CHP), building-integrated photovoltaic panels, onshore wind turbines and hydroelectric schemes. Heat could come from CHP, solar thermal, ground-source heat pumps, biomass and efficient electric systems.
Balancing a completely renewably-powered is the biggest engineering challenge for a fossil fuel-free Britain – but there are many emerging technologies detailed in the report which can solve this problem.
Following the success of zerocarbonbritain, CAT (in collaboration with the Public Interest Research Centre) is planning a Europe-wide zero-carbon energy strategy, mapping out a pathway to show how the entire EU could rapidly decarbonise – watch this space for zerocarboneurope!
To avoid catastrophic climate change, we need to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions to zero, according to research from the University of Victoria in Canada.
This data supports CAT’s groundbreaking energy strategy, zerocarbonbritain, which also advocates a 100% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible – an energy scenario explored within the report demonstrates it is possible to make these changes within 20 years.
CAT Development Director Paul Allen said: “The results from the University of Victoria back up our reading of the climate science, and highlight the immense challenge we now face.”
The team from the University of Victoria used a computer model to determine how much emissions must be limited to avoid exceeding a 2°C increase. They looked at reducing emissions by between 20% and 100% of 2006 levels by 2050. Only when emissions were entirely eliminated did the temperature increase remain below 2°C.
Mr Allen said: “If global temperatures rise more than 2°C, climate change will rapidly spiral out of control. The EU has pledged to reduce emissions to keep warming below this level, but their target of a 50% reduction in emissions by 2050 is too little, too late.
“Solving climate change is urgent, we need the right policies to eliminate all emissions from fossil fuels right now.”
zerocarbonbritain recommends technologies and policies to meet this challenge. It advocates a series of electronic carbon allowances known as Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) which would create a market driver for renewable energy, as products and services which use less fossil fuels would be cheaper.
This all happens within a global framework, allowing every nation’s per capita emissions to equalise, then reduce to zero. The scenario outlined in the report shows how the UK could reduce its overall energy use by 50%, then meet the remaining demand with 100% non-nuclear renewable energy.
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... but their timeframe will not avoid dangerous climate change.
The Liberal Democrats have launched a policy document called ‘Zero Carbon Britain – Taking a Global Lead’, only six weeks after the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) launched its own report entitled zerocarbonbritain.
The similarity is no coincidence - the Liberal Democrats were influenced by the CAT report, which was presented to all the major political parties at various events in Westminster in July.
Lembit Opik, MP for Powys and Montgomeryshire, and Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise said: “These proposals were largely inspired by the Welsh based Centre for Alternative Technology and I would like to thank them for the ground-breaking work.”
CAT supports the Liberal Democrats for announcing many progressive policies we urgently need to avoid the climate change ‘tipping point.’ However, although the Lib Dem report is ambitious, it does not move fast enough according to CAT researchers.
CAT Development Director Paul Allen said: “Whilst we congratulate the Lib Dems on recognising the need to reduce carbon emissions to zero, we believe 2050 is too late – we have recommended the same cuts by 2027. This is based on reading the latest climate science, which has shown climate change is already starting to feed back on itself, and could rapidly spiral out of control.
“Also, the tax-based policy proposed by the Lib Dems will not deliver the cuts we need. If we are to cut emissions by 100%, you have set the taxes very high – high enough to price even the super-rich out of the market. This would leave the poor severely disadvantaged during the transition period to a zero carbon Britain. We favour a more equitable system of carbon allowances, specifically Tradable Energy Quotas, or TEQs.”
Within CAT’s report, TEQs are distributed free to citizens, and auctioned to industry. They are only used when buying fossil fuels, and their number is gradually reduced until fossil fuels are completely eliminated after 20 years. This ensures that everyone has access to energy, the quotas can be traded between individuals and busineses, but the system still ensures that the total national cap is not exceeded.
CAT supports many of the other policies in the Liberal Democrat Zero Carbon Britain, including the call for a 100% renewable National Grid, the adoption of Contraction & Convergence as the post-Kyoto international framework, incentives to reduce emissions from homes, and the rejection of new nuclear power stations as a climate change solution.
“It is a huge, bold step for a political party to say we should reduce our emissions so drastically,” Mr Allen said. “But the Government needs to go even further than the Liberal Democrat document. We are inviting all politicians from all parties to discuss these policies with us, and we can help them build a solid policy framework. We can avoid serious climate change, if we act quickly – unfortunately, we do not have until 2050 to make these cuts.”
Above: CAT Development Director Paul Allen with Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik.
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The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) today released ‘zerocarbonbritain', a blueprint for Britain to reduce its carbon emissions[1] to zero by 2027. The report draws on CAT's 35 years of experience as well as consultations with world-renowned experts in climate science, climate policy and renewable energy technologies.
zerocarbonbritain outlines a framework of policies to drive the transition to a zero carbon economy. It defines a global carbon budget and identifies an equitable portion for Britain.
Paul Allen, CAT Development Director and co-author said, “zerocarbonbritain is a radical yet pragmatic vision of Britain’s energy future, based on a reading of the most recent science and driven by bold new policies.[2]
“Using only existing and proven technologies, the report maps a potential scenario that could arise from these policies and integrates solutions to the intimately connected issues of climate change, energy security and global equity.
“zerocarbonbritain is scientifically necessary, socially possible and technically achievable - we must now make it politically thinkable.”
Sir John Houghton, former Co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Director General of the UK Met Office said, “The authors of zerocarbonbritain present a time-scale for action that begins now. I commend their imagination (coupled with realism), their integrated view and their sense of urgency, as an inspiration to all who are grappling with the challenge that climate change is bringing to our world.”
Representatives of political parties applaud CATs new strategy
Politicians from across Wales came to the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) to support a new policy document.
CAT has produced a new report, zerocarbonbritain, showing how Britain could reduce its carbon emissions to almost zero within 20 years.
On Saturday 7th July, four politicians came to CAT’s annual Sustainable Science Symposium to learn about the sustainable energy vision.
The report recommends a policy-driven plan for reducing Britain’s emissions to zero by 2027. It also explores the possible outcomes of these policies and looks at how our lives could be different in 20 years time.
Using only existing and proven technologies, zerocarbonbritain integrates solutions to the intimately connected issues of climate change, energy security and global equity.
After a presentation, Labour MP Nia Griffith and Plaid Cymru candidate Simon Thomas debated the document, Lembit Opik MP and Mick Bates AM also came earlier in the day to find out more. All four politicians were very positive about CAT’s recommendations.
“This is exactly the sort of vision we should be putting forward,” Simon Thomas said. “It is a challenge to us to try to live up to it and try to implement what it contains.”
Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik said: “I salute the work of the Centre for Alternative Technology. This roadmap to a zero carbon Britain is truly ground-breaking, visionary and most importantly, do-able.”
Nia Griffith MP was also supportive of the document. “I’d like to congratulate the Centre for its forward thinking,” she said. “We need as much knowledge and expertise as possible to drive the agenda forward.
The report was released nationally on Monday 9 July and will also be presented to the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group at the House of Commons.
Sir John Houghton, former Co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Director General of the UK Metrological Office said, “The authors of zerocarbonbritain present a time-scale for action that begins now. I commend their imagination (coupled with realism), their integrated view and their sense of urgency, as an inspiration to all who are grappling with the challenge that climate change is bringing to our world.”
Other presentations over the weekend included talks on rammed earth building, small wind turbines, pre-fabricated timber buildings, carbon offsetting and tidal barrages for generating electricity.
As the world’s leading scientists release the ‘Mitigation of Climate Change’ report, the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) is working on a detailed blueprint for tackling the UK’s emissions.
Paul Allen, Development Director at CAT said:
“The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) places great weight on ‘cost-effective measures’ to avoid dangerous climate change. The cost of failing to meet the challenge of climate change is quite simply unlimited - it is a false economy not to take the measures required by the most up to date climate science. It is also worth noting that within the same report, the IPCC has identified multiple additional benefits to delivering a truly sustainable energy future”.
“The report also represents core reasons for adopting the climate change framework of Contraction and Convergence as proposed by the Global Commons Institute. Contraction and Convergence provides a global framework for allocating carbon permits between nations. The total of the allocations is guided by climate science and is intended to keep atmospheric carbon concentrations at a pre-defined level which is environmentally safe. This makes it the most certain route to environmentally effective mitigation.”
In July, CAT will release zerocarbonbritain- a blueprint for Britain to secure its sustainable energy future. The strategy will call for the distribution of personal tradable carbon permits and presents a portfolio of technologies and policies that will support our rapid transition to a nation that is both energy secure and carbon neutral.
CAT rejects Government’s nuclear power recommendations.
Renewing the Britain’s nuclear power stations is too expensive, and too slow to tackle climate change, according to the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT).
Paul Allen, CAT Development Director said:
“British nuclear decommissioning liabilities from the past 30 years have been estimated at £60 billion. This, plus the costs of security, safe transport and storage of waste must be taken into account in the true price we pay for nuclear power.
“Nuclear power currently makes up only 3.6% of the national energy mix. Even the most optimistic advocates of new nuclear power stations estimate that they won’t come online before 2017, most likely after 2020 – providing carbon savings too little, too late.
“In addition, if Britain makes nuclear a core component of its response to climate change, many other developing economies will follow suit. It will then be very hard to make a case why we are allowed nuclear technology, when others are not, yet must also meet their climate change targets.
“Renewable technologies can deliver, without an economic legacy or a foreign policy dilemma.”
In July, CAT will launch zerocarbonbritain:a blueprint to secure a sustainable energy future. It will demonstrate how Britain can negate the need for nuclear power through increased efficiency and renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions to near zero by 2027.
The report addresses the urgent concerns of oil depletion, climate change and global equity.
Responding to today’s "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) offers practical measures for tackling emissions.
Paul Allen, Development Director at CAT said:
“The challenges facing the world can no longer be considered in isolation. We must link climate change, energy security and global equity into a single issue with an integrated solution.
“There are reactions to climate change, such as a global dash for gas, which increase energy insecurities. There are solutions to depleting oil reserves, such as a massive switch back to coal, which accelerate climate change, and using inappropriate global trading to try to solve global equity will exacerbate both climate change and energy security.
“These kinds of measures – solving one challenge at the expense of another simply will not do. The key to success is to solve the three main challenges together.”
In July, CAT will release an alternative energy strategy: zerocarbonbritain - a blueprint for Britain to secure its sustainable energy future. The strategy will call for the distribution of personal tradable carbon permits and presents a portfolio of technologies and policies that will support our rapid transition to a nation that is both energy secure and carbon neutral.
Britain urgently needs thousands of skilled professionals if we are to meet this vital challenge. The Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (WISE) will incorporate the facilities of a university, teaching courses up to Masters level in renewable energy and architectural innovation. It will also provide a new kind of learning environment, with practical examples of low carbon technologies.
Please contact the CAT media office to arrange interviews 01654 705957 / 07704 273067 /
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