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.