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Low carbon research and development has hit a “critical mass” in the UK, MPs have heard today.
The Energy and Climate Change select committee (ECCC) has been told that the low carbon innovation sector within the UK has benefitted from the financial and structural support provided by the government.
Professor Jim Skea, from the Research Councils UK Energy Strategy Fellow and professor of sustainable energy at Imperial College London, told MPs: “I think with the institutional arrangements we’ve got at the moment we are beginning to get a critical mass in terms of scale that is need to actually make a difference in term of energy innovation.
“We are making steps to join up what is quite a complicated landscape.”
David Clarke, the chief executive at the Energy Technologies Institute, agreed with Skea, and added that a focus on specific areas has “enabled us to develop these critical mass centres of capabilities” within universities and the industry.
Rob Saunders, head of energy at the Technology Strategy Board, also stated that the funding and research and development structure in the UK “is beginning to bear fruit” but warned that “we are certainly way behind Germany, the US, and Japan in what we fund on a GDP basis”.
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