Thoughts, insights and rants about futures, climate change, system change, transport, wicked problems, EDI, and heavy metal

By Professor Glenn Lyons

Category: Decarbonisation

  • Rosebank oilfield given the go-ahead – hurrah for profit and power

    Rosebank oilfield given the go-ahead – hurrah for profit and power

    Rose-BANK $$$ given the go ahead. Congrats to the oil and gas industry, their lobbyists and shareholders. 09:26 news today – “Shares in Ithaca Energy, which will partner with Norway’s Equinor to develop the huge Rosebank oil field, 80 miles west of the Shetland islands, have jumped more than 8% on news of…

  • Short-term decisions for a political future

    Short-term decisions for a political future

    I didn’t sleep well last night. Bad news day yesterday and a chance to talk about it on BBC Radio Bristol this morning. Media interviews tend to be short lived and you don’t quite know the angle that the interviewer will take. I was on the John Darvall show an…

  • Place your bets on the future of transport decarbonisation

    Place your bets on the future of transport decarbonisation

    The Parliamentary Transport Committee’s report on strategic road investment published today recognises that the Government is gambling with our future when it comes to decarbonisation. Having led the Road Investment Scrutiny Panel (RISP) with Professor Steve Gooding which reported earlier this year (with Professors Jillian Anable, Nicola Christie, Zoe Davies, Stephen Glaister, Phil Goodwin,…

  • Place your bets now please – do we need road traffic reduction?

    Place your bets now please – do we need road traffic reduction?

    Shouldn’t a government with a legally binding commitment to decarbonise commit to road traffic reduction? It seems England is special. Scotland, Wales and Ireland all have targets set by their national governments to reduce car driven miles. England doesn’t. Yesterday the RAC Foundation published an important piece of work that set the…

  • Jet Zero – what to make of it – is it jam tomorrow?

    Jet Zero – what to make of it – is it jam tomorrow?

    Jet Zero is the UK Government’s 2022 strategy “delivering net zero aviation by 2050”. Jet Zero is ‘a high ambition scenario’ which would ‘only’ leave 19.3 MtCO2e/year still being emitted (domestic + international) in 2050. Pre-COVID annual emissions were 38.2 MtCO2e/year. “That doesn’t seem so impressive and doesn’t sound like…

  • Transport decarbonisation by 2050 – are you confident?

    Transport decarbonisation by 2050 – are you confident?

    In this short article I reflect briefly upon views in the transport sector regarding the prospects for decarbonisation by 2050. Polling As members of CIHT will know, each month the CIHT 100 panel is asked a topical question. In this month’s members’ magazine the question was: “Will the transport sector be able…

  • A hard hitting interview that could spoil your Christmas

    A hard hitting interview that could spoil your Christmas

    Please invest 23 minutes of your time Thanks to my longstanding colleague, Professor Jim Longhurst, my attention was drawn to an interview at COP25 in Madrid with Dr Peter Carter (Director of the Climate Emergency Institute and an expert reviewer for the IPCC). I strongly encourage you to invest 23 minutes of your time to watch…

  • Decarbonising surface transport – probable, plausible or only possible?

    Decarbonising surface transport – probable, plausible or only possible?

    12 years ago the UK Chancellor asked Professor Julia King to “examine the vehicle and fuel technologies that, over the next 25 years, could help to decarbonise road transport, particularly cars”. Her report noted that “The global challenge is to support increases in road transport use, in a sustainable, environmentally-responsible way”…