The Science Council recently held its first ever policy conference titled The Science Council Climate Conference - The UK Pathway to Net-Zero. The event brought together Science Council members and other organisations from across the science and engineering community to discuss how the UK can meet its targets for reducing emissions and reaching net-zero in the coming years.
The conference drew on the diverse expertise of Science Council member organisations, exploring in depth topics such as the challenges and opportunities in the food system, achieving net-zero in the steel industry and the role of hydrogen in balancing future supply and demand.
Nuclear's role in Net Zero
The Nuclear Institute were represented at the event by CEO Sarah Beacock and Mark Salisbury, Chair of the NI Policy Committee in the Meeting energy supply and demand breakout session. This discussion explored the scientific and engineering challenges and explore some of the emerging technologies which could make a difference in the UK's mission to reach Net Zero by 2050.
Speaking at the conference, Sir Patrick Vallance, Government Chief Scientific Adviser and National Technology Adviser, said:
"Every year, we're losing Arctic sea ice and CO2 levels have dramatically increased since the industrial revolution. There are clearly unarguable changes that are occurring. Science and technology are undoubtedly central to what we need to do. We need to be focused on technologies that we can already see, technologies that we have already invented, and ask how do we work out which of those we can implement and scale."
The Science Council’s President, Professor Carole Mundell, closed the day by summarising six themes that became evident to her throughout the discussions. These were science, scale, society, supply chains, systems and solutions. Professor Mundell also thanked all of the societies, partners, speakers and participants for their part in making the day so inspiring, insightful and motivating.
The Science Council looks forward to building on the connections and conversations from the conference and will continue its convening role within and beyond its membership.
To find out more about future events held by the Science Council and its professional body Members see their website.
Videos of the livestreamed sessions can be found here: