XR ‘does not understand’ scale of decarbonisation challenge

Calls by the Extinction Rebellion (XR) for the UK to adopt 2025 as the date for decarbonising the UK shows that they do not “really understand the scale of the challenge” that the target entails, according to an official at the Committee on Climate Change (CCC).

Dr David Joffe, who authored the CCC’s recently published report recommending the adoption of the 2050 as the date to reach the “net zero” target, told last week’s Utility Week Energy Summit that reaching it by the middle of the century is sufficiently challenging.

His views echoed CCC chief executive Chris Stark who described the 2050 net zero target as “extraordinarily ambitious” at an event hosted by Aurora Energy Research earlier this month.

Joffe took a potshot at the call by Extinction Rebellion, which brought parts of central London to a halt during April with a series of protests, for the net zero target to be fixed at 2025.

He said: “There is a lot we need to do simply to get to 2050.

“It’s not impossible to achieve an earlier date but extremely stretching to get to 2050. We need to be realistic about the challenges we set ourselves. The call from Extinction Rebellion for 2025 indicates to me they don’t really understand the scale of the challenge.

“We could have a conversation about 2045 but to anyone who says it can be done earlier, it is really important that they acknowledge the scale of the challenge.”

Joffe said that even meeting the 2050 target would require swift action in areas like electric vehicles, hydrogen and storage infrastructure,

He added: “There’s lots of progress that we need to make and need to make quickly.

“If we don’t make progress on infrastructure, we won’t be able to do it because there won’t be enough time.

“The time for analysis is over. We know roughly what we have to do.”

Michael Lewis, chief executive of Eon-UK, told delegates during the conference’s session on energy policy that the Treasury’s estimate that achieving net zero will cost the economy £1 trillion had to be put into a broader context.

“A trillion pounds is a lot of money but it’s over 30 years. To bail out the banking system was £1.16 trillion including all the contingent liabilities. It’s a number but we must absolutely make this investment and make this transition.”