Geoscience is key to meeting Committee on Climate Change's recommendations on reducing emissions, says Geological Society
2 May 2019
The Geological Society of London welcomes the report published today by the Committee on Climate Change, proposing that the Government commit to a net-zero reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by 2050. As part of its 2019 Year of Carbon programme, the Society is exploring the ways in which geoscience knowledge can support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Geological Society President Professor Nick Rogers says ‘‘The geosciences have a critical role to play in the challenge to deliver decarbonisation and mitigate the dangerous effects of climate change. Geoscientists will be vital to developing the technological solutions required to meet current targets for emissions reductions, and will have an even more important role if the new targets are adopted.
‘Whether it be important areas of development such as locating and extracting the critical metals needed to produce battery technologies for electric vehicles, subsurface energy storage, the development of the UK’s geothermal resource or the central role that carbon capture and storage will play, geological skills, research and expertise will be central to maximising opportunities for decarbonisation.’
In January 2019 the Geological Society hosted a meeting on the role of geological science in decarbonising the UK – you can read a report from the meeting here.
Notes
- Information on the 2019 Bryan Lovell Meeting, including the subsequent report, can be accessed here.
- The Geological Society of London issued a statement on ‘Climate Change: Evidence from the Geological Record’ in 2010, with an addendum published in 2013 – both can be accessed here.
- Geology and the UN Sustainable Development Goals – a briefing note published with the British Geological Survey in 2018.
- Further information on the Year of Carbon may be accessed here.