Talk- Dr. Alister Scott and Dr. Jim Watson. ‘Making a Transition to a Low Fossil Fuel Future’

Dr Alister Scott, of the Sussex Energy Group, is giving a talk for Transition Town Lewes on ‘making a transition to a low fossil fuel future’ with his colleague Dr Jim Watson. I have a quick chat with him about the subject. What he tells me is frightening. “The government has set targets for an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2050” he says. “Can you imagine a world in which we use up to 80% less energy? In only 33 years time? We will have to change our lives completely. All our devices will have to be more energy efficient: our tools; our transport; our buildings. Everything”.

“We can all make lifestyle changes to help reach these targets”, he says, “but the government has to work harder to provide the framework for us to do so. And we are fighting against lock-in: the way we are locked into an energy inefficient infrastructure which we can’t get rid of for some time. How many combustion engines are there in the world? How many gas boilers? Nobody will get rid of them until they stop working”. “There are positive signs,” he continues. “The price of wind turbine-generated electricity has dramatically fallen, for example, in the last 15 years. But innovation can work both ways. We are entering the era of the cheap car, which everyone can afford. This will lock us further into the energy trap”. So is it time to start panicking? “It’s time for individuals to make more changes. And it’s time for the government to wake up, too”. AL