The UK energy system in 2050

Tim Yeo MP, the chair of the Energy and Climate Change committee attended as well as shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex MP.

Achieving an 80 or 90% in carbon emissions to meet our Greenhouse Gas reduction targets will be challenging but it is clearly an agenda which must be successfully achieved.

This report has highlighted that the government can and should encourage and stimulate a range of low carbon technologies. Professor Paul Ekins said that the reduction targets need to be included within the Energy Bill to give them credibility. He added that there will be "very little scope" for non-gas Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) by 2050 if we are to successfully meet the targets.

Shale Gas was discussed as a potential solution to the UK energy crisis but there is genuine concern about 'fracking'. Whilst this exploration has worked in Texas, it might be far less popular in the Weald of Kent. Shales are also different in each region, and it is too expensive to produce then clearly it won't be economically viable.

Home heating also has to drastically change by 2050 to meet targets and will have to use electricity not natural gas. Vehicles too must evolve by then with more investment required in hybrid and other low carbon vehicles. Tom Greatrex MP also suggested that new housing required a mixture of biomass heating and no heating at all where insulation is good enough was suggested by Nick Eyre.

We also need more of a supply chain approach to UK gas security and the material flow of natural gas. In Europe gas is currently priced relative to the price of oil, yet in the UK it isn’t. The UK is 40% dependent on Norway for gas and 40% dependent on Qatar.

In short if we want to keep energy reduction costs to a minimum we need to change behaviour now not in 2045 ahead of the 2050 deadline.