Low carbon energy programme

The Royal Society is carrying out a major policy programme on low carbon energy. This aims to consider how transformational science and technology can help the UK transition to a low carbon future, while pursuing an active industrial strategy that creates growth and jobs in the short and medium term. This programme follows the commitments made in Paris at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Drawing on the expertise of Fellows of the Royal Society and the wider scientific community, the programme consists of several projects each focused on a priority area of low carbon science and technology.

The projects, encompassing workshops and reports, aim to provide a rapid and authoritative synthesis of the current evidence. Policy briefings have been published exploring:

Storing energy

• Large-scale electricity storage
• US-UK scientific forum on sustainable energy (PDF)

Low carbon transport

• Net zero aviation fuels: resource requirements and environmental impacts
• Sustainable synthetic carbon based fuels for transport

Capturing, storing and using carbon dioxide

• Geological carbon storage
• The potential for using rather than storing carbon dioxide
• US-UK Sackler Forum on dealing with carbon dioxide at scale

Low carbon energy sources and carriers

• The options for producing low carbon hydrogen at scale
• Ammonia as a zero-carbon fertiliser, fuel and energy store
• Nuclear cogeneration in a low carbon future