We’ve got 28 years to decarbonise our entire energy sector. Here’s how we do it.
For #NetZeroWeek, Rebecca Ford, Research Director of the UK’s Energy Revolution Research Consortium, explains why a whole systems approach is vital to meeting our net zero goals.
The science could not be clearer. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that there is only a brief window of time to act if we are to avoid the very worst impacts of climate change. We need to reduce our carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 at the very latest.
In just 28 years we need to:
- Replace all our gas guzzling cars with electric vehicles
- Throw out our old gas-fired combi boilers and replace them with heat pumps
- Use renewables like tidal, offshore wind and solar power to generate electricity instead of fossil fuels
Each of these goals comes with its own challenges. Transitioning to net zero will require the replacement of entire technologies, supply chains and infrastructures within extremely short timescales. We will need to train people to do entirely new green jobs. This sort of overhaul of society doesn’t come cheap. An estimated $125 trillion of investment is required to tackle climate change, of which $37 trillion is needed this decade.
At the same time, we need to make sure that everyone benefits from the transition to a new green economy.
I believe firmly that the only way of achieving all these goals within the timescale is to take a whole systems approach to transforming the UK’s energy system. So, what do I mean by this?
At the moment when we think about energy, we tend to separate it into different sectors. Electricity powers our smartphones, gas fires up our central heating systems, and petrol or diesel fuels our cars.
We usually consider these sectors separately, but in reality, they are increasingly entwined. Electric vehicles need to be charged from the national grid. In the future we may use some of the excess electricity generated from wind farms to produce hydrogen, which could then be fed into the gas network.
To revolutionise our energy system we need, therefore, to take a more holistic approach to energy. We need to consider how energy (across all sectors) is produced, stored, transported and distributed. It isn’t just about the physical energy system either. We also need to consider how people and industries use energy, and interact with it in their homes and businesses. Finally, we need to consider how energy is regulated, what the government policy landscape is, and how this interacts with energy markets.
This is what is known as a whole systems approach.
Don’t get me wrong, considering the whole rather than the sum of all the various moving parts is very difficult. To really understand how our energy system works and interconnects, you need to bring together different forms of knowledge.
You need engineers and physicists to sit side by side with social scientists and economists. You need academics to work hand in glove with local government officials and industry experts. These people have amazing knowledge to share even if they haven’t written it down in an academic paper. We need to find a common language, and be able to see things from a different perspective.
Although challenging, the rewards of such an approach are great.
That’s because it’s only by looking at the whole picture that you can understand the wider reaching impacts of the decisions you make. Because the energy system we operate is inherently interconnected with other ecological, environmental, social, financial, and regulatory systems, changes you make in one part can have a knock-on impact elsewhere. Without thinking about that whole systems approach there is a real risk that we might end up delivering unintended consequences in other areas.
For example, to deliver net zero we will need to maximise our use of renewable sources of energy like wind and solar power.
But these resources are far less energy dense than traditional forms of energy like coal, so will need to occupy more land to generate the same amount of power. This may have knock-on impacts on biodiversity and agriculture.
By the same token, growing crops for biofuels means that land won’t be available to grow food on.
We also need to understand the impact our decisions have on people. As we transform our economy and move away from fossil fuels to embrace green technologies, we must do it in a way that doesn’t increase inequality and leave behind vast swathes of society. We need to make sure that people’s livelihoods and wellbeing, and particularly those of the poorest in society, do not suffer.
Unfortunately research has shown that climate policies that have the best intentions behind them can inadvertently end up widening socioeconomic inequalities. Policies which aim to stimulate the uptake of clean energy technologies such as micro-generation, storage, heat-pumps, or electric vehicles, must be accessible by everyone, not only those with the financial means to do so.
Examples of change and best practice
The UK’s Energy Revolution Research Consortium (EnergyREV) is lucky to be working alongside three pioneering demonstration projects in the Prospering from the Energy Revolution (PFER) programme. These projects are transforming the energy system in their local area by building smaller scale, decentralised smart energy systems that serve local communities.
Orkney, an archipelago off the north-eastern coast of Scotland, has a huge amount of renewable energy potential. Exposed to the elements and surrounded by seas, it is extremely windy and wet.
Huge offshore wind and tidal potential means the islands can produce much more energy than needed for by the islands’ inhabitants, and yet the cable that connects Orkney to the Scottish mainland is constrained. This means that the energy cannot be transported to the rest of the UK where it is needed, and so it is wasted.
At the same time, people in Orkney pay some of the highest electricity prices and despite all this energy being generated locally they have quite high rates of fuel poverty.
The Reflex project aims to change this by creating an integrated, affordable, low-carbon energy system for the future. The project aims to interlink local electricity, transport, and heat networks into one controllable, overarching system, digitally connecting distributed and variable renewable generation to flexible demand.
Meanwhile, our Energy Superhub Oxford (ESO) project is exploring how rapid electric vehicle charging, hybrid battery energy storage systems, low carbon heating, and smart energy management can improve air quality and support Oxford’s journey to net zero.
The project is developing an Electric Vehicle charging network connected to the National Grid, as well as innovative, small ‘shoebox’ ground source heat pumps that will eliminate the carbon associated with heating our homes and businesses.
Finally, Project LEO (Local Energy Oxfordshire), is exploring the potential of various energy assets, such as solar panels or batteries to deliver flexible energy to the national grid. The project is also working with six varied local communities to explore how smart technologies can create opportunities in a local energy marketplace and help us to understand how to do this in an equitable and fair way for everyone.
Where we go from here — Continuing the COP momentum
COP26 was amazing at galvanising action and bringing people together within organisations — a lot of people got really engaged and involved. As a result, a great deal of organisations, cities and regions have signed up to the race to net zero which is very exciting. However, it’s vital that we keep that spark ignited so that people don’t just go back to ‘business as usual’.
One way we can do this is through long term policies that give local governments, businesses, and industries the confidence to get behind green technology and develop the supply chains, skills, and jobs we need to deliver net zero.
Nevertheless, we are standing on the precipice of change. Over the next few years, we need to see seismic changes in the way we travel, the ways our homes are heated, in the types of food we eat, and in the work we do.
This is a huge opportunity. While we’re transforming the UK’s energy system, we also have the chance to improve air quality, protect biodiversity, reduce inequality, empower communities, and create sustainable industries. All these challenges are linked, and unless we can tackle these together then we won’t reach net zero quickly enough.
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Rebecca Ford, from the University of Strathclyde, is one of four researchers awarded fellowships to engage with the international climate negotiations in the run up to the 26th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The COP26 Fellowships, sponsored by UKRI through the Economic and Social Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, were offered through the Place-Based Climate Action Network and support the international climate negotiations through the provision, synthesis, translation, and interpretation of scientific evidence.
