Britons are more confident that universities can come up with solutions to the climate crisis than governments, a new poll has shown.
More than half of British people believe that governments will come up with innovations to help reduce the effects of climate change, a new Cambridge University poll has found.
The poll found that almost two-thirds of people (61%) expect universities to lead the drive for innovations, compared to 47% who believe governments will do so.
Almost the same amount (46%) believe the private sector will be instrumental in coming up with new technologies and innovations to reduce climate change.
The poll of 2,003 people was conducted by Public First in September this year.
What tech does the public believe will stop climate change?
The research found that the public believes that carbon capture technology which removes carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere is the most important (38%) followed by alternative fuels for cars (37%) and grid-scale batteries that store large amounts of renewable energy (30%).
Carbon capture
Carbon capture technologies capture emissions from burning fuels for energy or from industrial processes such as cement production, and uses or transports them for storage permanently underground – for example, in disused oil fields under the sea.
It is seen by the likes of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the UK’s Climate Change Committee as a key element in meeting targets to cut the greenhouse gases driving dangerous climate change.
While it has long been championed as part of the solution – with energy secretary Ed Miliband first announcing plans to develop carbon capture projects for power plants in 2009 during the last Labour government – little progress has been made on it in the UK.
On 4 October, the UK government pledged nearly £22bn funding to develop “carbon capture clusters” in Merseyside and Teesside over the next 25 years. The move was welcomed by independent advisers from the Climate Change Committee, but Greenpeace criticised the support for hydrogen from gas as putting the country at risk of “locking ourselves into second-rate solutions”.
Alternative fuels
Multiple projects in the UK are researching new fuels which could significantly cut CO2 emissions.
For instance, in the UK, trials on hydrogen fuel cells, which use the chemical energy of hydrogen to produce electricity, aim to use the technology in buses and trains.
Projects such as Net Zero Teesside aim to provide ‘blue hydrogen’ produced from natural gas for use in industry.
Research in the UK is also working on ‘sustainable’ jet fuel blended with biofuel made from plants, with Manchester University finding it could cut aviation emissions by up to 80%.
Grid-scale batteries
Grid-scale batteries allow the storage of large amounts of electricity, and can make it easier to use less reliable generation methods such as solar and wind.
Grid-scale battery storage capacity in Britain is already growing rapidly, with 3.5 gigawatt hours available in the last quarter of 2023, up 13% from the third quarter.
By 2030, the amount of available storage is expected to rise to 10 gigawatt hours, according to the Government.
What do people hope for in the next 50 years?
Over the longer term – the next 50 years or so – the most important steps are seen as investment in low-carbon energy infrastructure (59%), emissions reductions in the private sector (52%) and government funding research into new technologies.
The hopes of respondents to the Cambridge University survey align closely with many aspects of the government’s Net Zero policy – with the government having pledged to achieve 100% low-carbon electricity by 2035, invest in hydrogen power and invest £20bn in carbon capture, utilisation and storage.
Professor Dame Clare Grey, from the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry at Cambridge, said: “Universities need to be coming up with answers for 10 to 15 years from now – we’re the ones who are best placed to innovate, think creatively and generate radical, new solutions”
Bhaskar Vira, pro-vice chancellor for education and environmental sustainability, said: “Cambridge has hundreds of projects addressing the climate and nature crises from fundamental scientific and technological research to policy and public engagement. Nurturing an ecosystem which allows our colleagues to work on these urgent issues is a key part of our mission to contribute to society.”
