Armed forces declare war on carbon footprint

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has today announced wide-reaching plans to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels as one of five key strands of its newly unveiled Technology Procurement Strategy.

The MoD is currently undergoing an audit of its carbon emissions. It has broadly estimated that the armed forces are responsible for one per cent of the UK's emissions – equivalent to more than 50 million tonnes of CO2 in 2007.

Approximately half of this is from energy used by facilities, while the other half is accounted for by fuel for vehicles used by the RAF, Navy and, to a lesser extent, ground forces.

The department said that in addition to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, cutting the use of fossil fuels would deliver tactical benefits to the armed forces, enhancing the manoeuvrability of troops by limiting their reliance on fuel supply chains.

"We need to improve energy security and the efficiency of our logistic chains and are looking for new ways to do that," said Paul Stein, director of science and technology for the MoD, adding that more energy-efficient technologies and access to new sources of energy could help achieve that goal.

Under the new strategy, the MoD will open up its procurement activities to include smaller, and arguably more innovative, companies for the first time, and will also actively seek speculative technology proposals from small businesses.

"We are looking to embrace and encourage novel, cutting-edge ideas to provide our future forces with the latest technological advances so they can stay one step ahead of the enemy," said Quentin Davies, minister for defence procurement.

Officials said the department was particularly interested in energy-efficient and renewable energy technology, such as hydrogen storage systems, fuel cells, hybrid and more efficient engines, and on-site fuel and energy generation systems.

They added that on-site energy generation would allow front-line troops to be far more flexible in the length of time they can stay out in the field.

The RAF has also now certified all its aircraft to fly with synthetic fuels and are investigating whether biofuels could provide a cheaper, more efficient fuel in the long term.