'Carbon cuts target is unachievable'

Friday, November 13, 2009

The government's target of cutting carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 is simply not achievable and the year 2100 would be more realistic, a report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) has said.

The IMechE reckoned that there was not enough time or capacity in the next 40 years to build the amount of nuclear power stations and wind turbines that would be needed to meet the target and called for a major investment in geo-engineering. Cutting the demand for energy by just 50 per cent by 2030 would need 16 new nuclear power stations and 27,000 wind turbines, the report insisted, and the government might need to consider creating 100,000 'artificial trees' which absorb CO2.

However, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said the "defeatist" IMechE's "can't do, won't do attitude" was not welcome.

Dr Tim Fox, head of environment and climate change at the IMechE, said: "We'll be competing for the engineering resources to deploy those wind farms in a global market where lots of other nations are trying to de-carbonise at the same time. The most current analysis shows that by 2013 we won't have enough of the specialist construction vessels to assist in the construction of the offshore wind farms. Not only that, but by 2016 there's not enough turbine manufacturing capacity in the world to be able to deliver the turbines to all the projects that need them at that time."

He went on: "We've done an assessment of the level of kit that is needed and it is at a level of building and construction and deployment that is unprecedented in modern times. We need the government to adopt an engineering programme management type of approach laying out the best combination of solutions, rather than the current approach which is to almost blindly assume that mitigation can be achieved regardless of whether in practical terms it can be delivered on the ground.

"It's time to go to war on climate change, it is attacking us and we must fight back."

However, a DECC spokesperson said: "The Institute [sic] of Mechanical Engineers' can't do, won't do attitude is sending out a defeatist message ahead of the crucial climate change talks in Copenhagen. The truth is that if we act now we can not only beat climate change but gain from the green benefits that will flow in terms of jobs and investment from going low carbon. That's what our transition plan is already doing, so it's a shame the Institute is not embracing the vast opportunities available for engineers in the shift to a low carbon economy."