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Can We Reach Net Zero By 2030?

 

Ambitious business owners looking for pressure vacuum relief valves will have been considering how feasible some of the climate demands in recent months are. 

This year has seen protests by Extinction Rebellion bring city centres to a halt, and the Labour Party Conference pass a motion to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030. This pledge was quietly dropped from the manifesto and replaced with the pledge to move towards net zero carbon emissions. 

Achieving net zero carbon emissions will obviously be heavily dependent on investment in renewable energy sources, so that the UK can build on the significant gains made in the past couple of years. 

GMB, a trade union has argued that net zero is unachievable by 2030 as: “The proposal to do it by 2030 threatens whole communities, threatens jobs, and frankly GMB members in communities right up and down the UK have heard it all before.

“This will mean within a decade people’s petrol cars being confiscated. This will mean families can only take one flight every five years. Net zero carbon emissions by 2030 is utterly unachievable.”

One the other hand the Carbon Trust has argued that net zero is achievable, but only with a clear commitment to funding the technology and industry needed. In an article its chief said: “Clarity, continuity and certainty from government are key requirements for an effective transition.”

Doing nothing is clearly not an option, for the energy industry or anybody else, and the next ten years are set to be interesting for all involved.