“Beyond Rhetoric – Delivering a Low Carbon Society” 2010 ICE Brunel Lecture Keith Clarke CEO -...

“Beyond Rhetoric – Delivering a Low Carbon Society”2010 ICE Brunel Lecture Keith Clarke CEO - Atkins22 September 2010

Brunel International Lecture 2010

Copenhagen paved the way

• 194 Countries• Media hyped ‘failure’• There have been real targets set

as a response to it• 2020 and 2050 are key dates

• “In the UK, the Climate Change Act and five-year CO2e budgets

will help evaluate the progress we’re making to reduce fossil fuel use substantially by 2050.”

• “…beyond Rhetoric.”


2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

CA

RB

ON

EM

ISS

ION

S

Business As Usual

Efficiency

Decarbonisation

Journey

A very tough timeline

Habits

Embedded

Stu

dy &

Con

sulta

tion


“Create the society in which weaspire to live”

• Our role is not to engineer austerity

• Low carbon engineering must be delivered in conjunction with high quality design, with elegance and simplicity.

• The low carbon society will not be a return to poverty and donkey carts. We will also continue to promote low carbon GDP growth and leadership in this new economy, which will be a significant source of new, green, jobs.


“A New Industrial Revolution”

• Moving to a low carbon society is as large a driver for engineers today as industrialisation was to our forefathers from the Victorian age.

• What they did affected almost every aspect of daily life

• Reducing carbon emissions could be considered a ‘new industrial revolution’ and is set to have a similar impact on tomorrow’s world.


What stage are we at?

Akin to what Brunel might have experienced in his day:

• largely conceptual• little empirical knowledge• codes becoming outdated quickly and continuously• rudimentary calculations being made based on many

assumptions.

“It’s a tremendous engineering challenge; creating a low-carbon future represents a

new design parameter that is disruptive rather than additive”


What do I do?


Complexity in codes


When do I design?


Seven Maxims for a HighlyEffective Engineering Profession

• Challenge assumptions

• Innovate rigorously

• Pursue commercially viable low carbon technology

• Learn to love uncertainty

• Communicate and collaborate

• Avoid inertia

• Learn rapidly


“Don’t blame government, clients or the recession; in truth we are limited only by our ambition and ingenuity. Engineers have to demonstrate what is feasible so that governments and the financial community understand which way to go.”


“Where is the carbon and how do we remove it from the equation?”

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