Sir Patrick Vallance has issued a stark warning about the UK’s ambition to reach its 2050 net-zero goal in the fight against climate change.
The UK’s chief scientific adviser gave the warning at the Lister Memorial Lecture in Edinburgh, where he told the audience that “the risk of 2050 is it sounds a long way off”.
“You haven’t got more than five years or so to actually get this right and make some decisions about what you want to do if you’re going to scale those things sufficiently to be ubiquitous by 2050.”
Sir Patrick made the comments ahead of being awarded the SCI’s (Society of Chemical Industry) Lister Medal at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on Thursday.
The medal, which he was awarded for his leadership on the Covid-19 vaccine during the pandemic, is named after Sir Joseph Lister – the British surgeon who introduced antisepsis into hospital routine and pioneered the field of bacteriology in the 19th century.
At the lecture, he told the audience of students, scientists and academics a science base must be retained in the country to help with the shift to net-zero, but that companies were also needed to help scale solutions.
“That’s a big challenge. But it’s a challenge, actually, that’s rather worth going for because it’s going to be a multitrillion-dollar economic benefit. Across the world there’s a big market,” he said.
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Source: Sir Patrick Vallance issues warning over net-zero goal
