We need to make a start on ‘low-regrets’ actions that will make sense on any pathway to net zero, whatever the details of the final plan. In the UK, building an electric vehicle (EV) charging network is one of these, writes Professor Roger Kemp of the National Engineering Policy Centre.
At COP26, Climate Action Tracker released a projection that, based on countries’ current 2030 targets, global heating could increase to 2.4°C above pre-industrial levels. Actions to reduce carbon emissions cannot wait for the development of fully researched, comprehensive and costed national plans.
The UK Government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution identifies ten seemingly free-standing workstreams towards a greener future but, in practice, they are all related and some are so closely linked that a decision in one will directly affect another. Priorities in zero-emission vehicles and greener buildings will only be successful if other priorities in offshore wind and advanced nuclear power are also implemented to provide a low-carbon energy supply. And the economics of the offshore wind and greener buildings workstreams rely on zero-emissions vehicles to provide a controllable baseload to fill the worst troughs in electricity demand when heating is not needed.
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Reducing our carbon emissions is going to take the transformation of many interconnected infrastructure systems, from transport to the built environment, and we must find opportunities to take advantage of existing synergies as soon as possible when delivering net zero.
Recognising the need for urgent decarbonisation, the National Engineering Policy Centre, a partnership of 43 engineering organisations led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, has published Rapid ‘low-regrets’ decision making for net zero policy. This provides a framework for policymakers to identify the first steps for early action on ‘low-regret’ decarbonisation options with a set of criteria that can be applied to identify low-risk, high-reward climate measures that can be taken now to significantly reduce carbon emissions and, put the UK in a better position to meet the challenge of achieving net zero.