SE Academic Review 2023

(5 x diameter of blade) 2 8363200

12 ST EDWARD’S, OXFORD

= 7.44 W/m 2 (cu

(5 x 212) 2

Figure 8. Global Energy Use (Gates, 2021, p. 55) Global Energy Use

MacKay (2009, p. 103) broke UK energy consumption into nine different segments, shown in the bar chart (Figure 7), with 86% dominated by transport, heating/cooling and “stuff”. His number is far higher than the UK statistics total of 79kWh/p/d. Some of this gap comes from the development of UK energy efficiency, but the bulk of it is from energy use such as imports and international air travel that are not included in UK statistics. To reach carbon neutrality by 2050, we must address all the emissions from the UK, both domestically and outside UK borders. HEATING AND DOMESTIC TRANSPORT As shown from MacKay’s energy consumption breakdown, the key contributors to the UK’s energy use are transport and heating. Fortunately, converting this portion of consumption to a carbon neutral grid is a simple problem to solve. For domestic transport the most obvious solution is to switch over to EVs. These not only will have a lower carbon footprint when powered by renewable energy but are also more efficient. Domestic heating needs to switch over to heat pumps rather than using gas boilers. Heat pumps are 200-600% more efficient than gas boilers, can run off the electricity grid and are already used commercially in many countries around the world. This would significantly reduce the amount of carbon emissions and energy required. Unfortunately not all sources of carbon emissions currently have renewable energy solutions. The pie chart (Figure 8) comes from Bill Gates’ (2021) book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster and shows global energy use divided into five sections. He estimates that around 40% of carbon emissions do not have a renewable solution, primarily coming from ‘making things’ and ‘growing things’. ‘Making things’ covers infrastructure building such as the use of cement and steel, whilst ‘growing things’ is all about animal agriculture and fertilisers. MARKET SECTORS WITHOUT GREEN TECHNOLOGY

7%

16%

31%

Getting Around Growing Things Plugging In Making Things Keeping Warm and Cool

19%

27%

These sectors of the economy are more difficult to convert to carbon neutrality. Both cement and steel for example produce huge amounts of CO 2 by using coal in the manufacturing process. Emissions in agriculture are produced by livestock and burning natural gas to manufacture fertilisers. Research institutions are working on solutions across all these sectors. For cement there are methods such as reinjecting the carbon, which currently reduces emissions by around 10% (Gates, 2021, p. 106). Carbon emissions from steel can be decreased through increasing the electrification of the manufacture process. A Swedish company has recently made steel using hydrogen instead of coal ( The Guardian , 2021). In agriculture, fertilisers could be manufactured by using electricity rather than natural gas and meat could be grown in laboratories, reducing farming area (Gates, 2021, p. 111). However, new technologies to turn building and agriculture carbon neutral will take time to develop. Interim solutions such as carbon capture and carbon offset technology can be used, but both are expensive and logistically complicated. Therefore, the UK needs to look at lowering consumption, at least until the new technology is developed. This means building less, eating less meat, wasting less food as well as flying less. What we currently take for granted as part of our daily lives will need to change dramatically. UK Total 79 UK Statistics MacKay Lighting 4 Gadgets 5 Car 40 Jet Flights 30 Heating/Cooling 37 Food, Farming 15 Stu 48 Transport Stu 12 Defence 4

UK Energy Consumption

200

150

100

50

0