"Energy obese" UK could be emissions-free by 2027
Forget about Britain's plan to reduce emissions 60 percent by 2050. According to a radical new strategy released on Monday, the country could be completely carbon-free within two decades.
Zerocarbonbritain, the first strategy to propose eliminating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, advocates a series of drastic measures, such as limiting domestic flights to emergency use, that would make an "Island Britain" self-sufficient in energy.
The result would be to abolish Britain's CO2 emissions, which trap the sun's heat in the earth's atmosphere, by 2027.
"The UK government's (current target) is well ahead of its peers, but still falls far short of what is known to be needed," Tim Helweg-Larsen, one of the authors of the report commissioned by Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales.
"We've concluded from the climate science that we ought to be at zero emissions from fossil fuels very soon, if not already... this is an emergency situation," he added.
The report says that years of cheap, abundant fossil fuels have led to highly wasteful practices and attitudes, making Britain "energy obese" by using far more energy than is actually required to deliver well-being.
Whereas other solutions have placed emphasis on the need for nuclear power, which produces very low emissions, the report's authors believe energy demand could be cut by 50 percent.
That would allow the country to rely solely on indigenous renewable resources such as wind, tidal, solar, biomass and hydroelectricity.
Eleven percent of Britain's electricity demand, or the equivalent to what is currently supplied by nuclear power, can be met by tidal energy alone, the report said.
CONTRACTION AND CONVERGENCE
The strategy also relies on a framework of contraction and convergence (C&C), whereby a national CO2 cap is agreed followed by a progressive contraction to zero emissions by 2027.
Similar to the European Union's emissions trading scheme, Britain's total allocation would be translated into Tradeable Energy Quotas (TEQs), each representing one kilogram of CO2.
Under the proposal, TEQs would become a sort of parallel currency, with 40 percent distributed free to households while the remaining 60 percent would be auctioned to businesses.
A portion of the proceeds would go to assist the poorest households in switching to energy efficient appliances.
Zerocarbonbritain also advocates improvements to rail and bus services, expansion in cycle lanes and pedestrian facilities, and limiting air travel.
A switch to electric-powered cars would also facilitate the introduction of a vehicle-to-grid system, where drivers plug in and either feed from or contribute to the national power grid.
The study calculates that the nation's 27 millions cars, replaced entirely by electric vehicles with an average battery capacity of 15kW, could generate enough power to supply UK's power needs more than ten times over.
A large reduction in livestock of 60 percent or more is also required, which would cause a major shift in the nation's landscape and eating habits.
Reforestation and biomass plant cultivation will replace grazing pastures, while more fruit and vegetable will replace much of the meat, fish and dairy to which Britons have become accustomed, the report added.
The proposal concludes by suggesting a national strategy be developed in harmony with those of other nations.
"Poland has a large resource of grain but little opportunity for renewable energy generation... Scandinavia has forestry biomass and Spain has sun. All could be traded," the report said.
"Although this is a strategy for Britain, it is necessarily also part of an international process," Helweg-Larsen added.
(Published by Reuters, July 10, 2007)