Engineers argue UK climate change policy must be reshaped if targets are to be met

The UK's current climate change policies will not be sufficient for the country to meet its legally binding target of cutting emissions 80 per cent by 2050, according to a new report from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

Building on work undertaken by Professor Roger Pielke of the University of Colorado, the report authors calculated that the UK would need to reduce carbon output per unit of GDP by over five per cent a year up to 2050 if it is to hit the target. Between 2001 and 2006, the UK achieved an average annual reduction of just 1.3 per cent.

"The Institution of Mechanical Engineers believes that a realistic date to achieve the 2050 targets, based on current policy, is 2100 at the earliest – some 50 years later than targeted," the report warns.

For the UK to be on track to achieve the emission reductions required by the Climate Change Act, it would have to achieve the carbon efficiency of France by 2015, which has decarbonised more rapidly than any other country in the world, mainly through investing heavily in nuclear power.

The report said that to emulate the French, up to 30 new nuclear power stations would be needed within the next few years, and it recommended a new approach to climate change policy based on a more realistic view of the scale of the challenge.

In particular it calls for far greater focus on adaptation and geo-engineering measures, as well as a more rapid rollout of low carbon technologies. The Institute recommended that alongside the Government's mitigation tactics, more money needs to be invested in protecting transport links and energy production from inevitable climate change.

It also advises that more money should be earmarked for research into controversial geo-engineering technologies, which propose tinkering with the climate by either removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere or reflecting solar radiation back into space.

To drive this new strategy, the report recommends introducing more centralised control for climate change policy in the form of a remodelled Department of Energy and Climate Change with sole responsibility for directing national climate change funding, planning, development and incubating technologies.

It said that such a department could more effectively oversee the delivery of 16 new nuclear power stations, rather than the ten planned by Government, and the abolition of planning constraints on onshore wind turbines, leading to the erection of 27,000 turbines by 2030 and a further 13,000 by 2050.