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03-11-2020, 06:34 PM
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Climate change: Technology no silver bullet, experts tell PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54662615

In a speech due soon, Boris Johnson is expected to pledge his faith in offshore wind power, solar, carbon capture, hydrogen, clean cars, and zero-emission aviation. But the PM is being accused of techno-optimism bias, because he does not mention other key factors in reducing emissions.

In fact, experts say, tackling climate change will need action right across society and the economy - with a host of new incentives, laws, rules, bans, appliance standards, taxes and institutional innovations. In other words, when it comes to cutting carbon emissions, there’s no silver bullet – it’s more like silver buckshot. But Boris Johnson still seems to have a bandolero stuffed with technologies resembling silver bullets:

Clean cars
The prime minister is due to accelerate the transition towards battery- and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

But Professor Jillian Anable from Leeds University warns that “Producing electricity and hydrogen requires huge numbers of wind farms or the like, and the cars themselves need resource-hungry tyres, and batteries.

Hydrogen
A key question is whether it’s sourced from natural gas – which is expensive and, depending on the process used, can yield troublesome carbon dioxide as a by-product - or by using surplus wind energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The latter process does the job cleanly but at still greater cost.

Aviation
On aviation, the prime minister has launched his ambition to devise clean planes. He calls the project “jet zero”.

Cait Hewitt from the Aviation Environment Federation said: “No zero-carbon technology options are currently available for commercial aviation. Planes use masses of energy. Given how far we are from delivering major rollout of radical new technologies, we’ll probably need to fly less.”

Nuclear
UK governments have agonised for decades about nuclear energy, but Boris Johnson recently gave it the nod. That means he’s likely to either agree a financial package for a new station at Sizewell or for small modular reactors, or both.

But nuclear is still a divisive issue and very expensive. To play a major role, the cost of new nuclear plants will really need to fall, especially when the costs of other technologies like wind and solar have dropped so far.

Capturing carbon
The prime minister has professed himself “an evangelist" for the technology that captures carbon dioxide as it is emitted from factories and power stations and either stores it in underground rocks or uses it for new chemicals.

Two decades ago it was touted as a climate saviour, but it's very expensive and has never taken off.

So much for silver bullets. But what about the silver buckshot?

A long list of policies also requires government attention, including: standards for new homes; green recovery; food production; planning rules; peat; heat and buildings; meat eating; infrastructure statement; road building; carbon dioxide in soil; medium-term emissions targets; tree planting; energy storage; industrial strategy; appliance standards; and the comprehensive spending review.
Silver bullets and Moonshots seem to be BJ's obsessions .....
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03-11-2020, 10:20 PM
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Re: Climate change: Technology no silver bullet, experts tell PM

Of course we all know how important it is to take the scientists advice.....They can't even forecast the weather more than a fortnight in advance.....
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17-04-2021, 09:42 PM
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Re: Climate change: Technology no silver bullet, experts tell PM

 

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