IPCC’s Findings Align with ETI’s Priorities for Future Development of UK Energy System

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) has welcomed the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Report on Mitigation of Climate Change.

The IPCC report highlights that whilst there are many pathways to emissions reduction the specific circumstances of individual countries and preferences of consumers and voters will influence the choice of pathway.

Major technological change is required and the IPCC’s findings strongly align with the ETI’s priorities for the future development of the UK energy system – namely efficiency measures, nuclear, gas, carbon capture and storage (CCS), bioenergy and renewables.

The importance and value of CCS and bioenergy are highlighted which is consistent with ETI’s key findings that without either CCS or bioenergy the cost of delivering the UK’s climate change targets will double from around 1% of GDP to 2%. If neither are deployed, it is difficult to see how the targets could be met at all.

The IPCC report also recognises that the availability and performance of Bioenergy with CCS strongly influences the mitigation effort (and cost) required in other sectors and this is why the UK cannot afford further delay in developing the evidence base required to support decision making in both these areas.

The ETI has built a comprehensive set of tools and analysis to provide the evidence required to underpin credible pathways for the roll-out of CCS in the UK, complementing and building on the DECC Commercialisation programme. By planning and co-ordinating CCS, the infrastructure required is limited and the cost of full deployment of CCS in the UK to 2050 is estimated to be in the order of £5bn (Net Present Value).

“Our in-house modelling work strongly suggests that bioenergy could be a key component of any future UK energy mix to meet the demands of providing affordable, secure and sustainable energy. We must build a robust evidence base to underpin informed assessments of the nature and scale of contribution that bioenergy can make to the future low carbon energy system. Only this will provide confidence for investors, policy makers and consumers alike.” 

Press release, April 17, 2014; Image: ETI