Climate change is now widely recognised as one of the biggest threats facing the future habitability of the earth. Increases in global temperatures of only a few degrees are predicted to have widespread social and environmental impacts, including species extinction, millions of people left homeless through flooding and drought, and threats to global food production. According to the World Health Organisation, 150,000 people a year are already dying as a result of manmade climate change. The Science
The climate has always fluctuated – the sun’s activity, the earth’s orbital path and volcanic eruptions continue to influence the Earth’s climate. However, the vast majority of scientists agree that temperatures are now increasing at an unprecedented level due to human activity increasing the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gas levels. Greenhouse gases such as water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane, trap and re-emit infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface – this keeps the Earth warm. However, the concentration of greenhouse gases – CO2 and methane in particular, which have increased by 36% and 148% respectively since 1750 – now far exceeds pre-industrial levels. Before the industrial revolution, our atmosphere contained 280 parts per million CO2 equivalent. When the Stern Review was published in 2006 it was 430 ppm, and rising by about 2 ppm every year. “If no action is taken to reduce emissions, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could reach double its pre-industrial level as early as 2035, virtually committing us to a global average temperature rise of over 2°C. In the longer term, there would be more than a 50% chance that the temperature rise would exceed 5°C. This rise would be very dangerous indeed; it is equivalent to the change in average temperatures from the last ice age to today.” – Stern Review The Politics
The UK has both international and domestic targets for reducing greenhouse gases. By signing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the UK agreed - along with other major industrialised countries - to collectively reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5% against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012. However the Kyoto Protocol is now out of date, and attempts to negotiate a new binding international agreement in Copenhagen in 2009 ended in failure. Further rounds of negotiation are due to take place in Mexico in 2010, South Africa in 2011, and in either Qatar or South Korea in 2012. In the meantime, global carbon emissions are continuing to rise. In the UK’s Climate Change Act of 2008, the Government committed the country to another binding target; by 2050 the UK’s carbon emissions must be reduced by 80% from the 1990 figures. The Role of Renewables
Despite having one of the largest renewable resource potentials in the world - the strongest winds in Europe, and a long coastline - the UK continues to generate less than 7% of our electricity from renewable energy (compared with a government target of 10.4% in 2010/11). Great Britain languishes at third bottom in the European ranking on the proportion of energy we generate from renewables – only Luxembourg and Malta are worse than us. But Good Energy’s analysis shows that by implementing better energy efficiency, changing the pattern of electricity use and increasing renewable energy generation, not only can Britain meet our emissions reduction target, but we can transform our economy into one based on 100% renewable energy by 2050. “We need to develop a new, closer relationship with the energy we use which will encourage us to value our energy more and use it less. Our vision of the future looks very different to what we see today: energy companies will be transformed from leviathans to enablers and, maybe, by 2050, they will all look like Good Energy.” – Juliet Davenport, CEO, Good Energy |
