Cambridge Professor says climate change threat is misunderstood

Invitation to SCI’s Free Public Evening Lecture

Wednesday 28 June 2017

Professor Michael J Kelly, Prince Phillip Professor of Technology, Cambridge University will speak on future energy needs and engineering reality.

Professor Kelly says that the UK’s rush to counter the effects of climate change has led to a mistaken scramble to invest in pointless alternative energies.

To really tackle the problem, the Government will need a radical plan - nothing short of the biggest peacetime programme of change ever seen in this country.

• Fossil fuels have provided over 90% of the energy consumed on earth since 1800.
• In support of the current global push towards decarbonisation, the UK has committed to reducing greenhouse emissions by at least 80% of 1990 levels before 2050.
• Is it possible to achieve this target? And, if so, how? Are there lessons about the development and introduction of new technologies to be learnt from our past?

A study by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2010 analysed the options for attaining the 2050 emissions target and concluded:
‘Turning the theoretical emissions reduction targets into reality will require more than political will: it will require nothing short of the biggest peacetime programme of change ever seen in the UK.’

Professor Michael Kelly has previously argued against over-interpretation of the data on climate change and warned about the danger of unintended consequences caused by premature deployment of technologies to combat emissions. On Wednesday 28 June 2017, at SCI’s Public Evening Lecture, he will examine growing global energy needs alongside efforts to reduce emissions and consider how the UK could plan for a sustainable future by looking at lessons from recent technological interventions.

About the Speaker
Professor Michael Kelly has been the Prince Philip Professor of Technology in the University of Cambridge since 2002 and is a Professorial Fellow at Trinity Hall. He was Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department for Communities and Local Government. He was the Executive Director of the Cambridge-MIT Institute, bringing together academics from both institutions to work on research, education, and industrial outreach for the benefit of the UK economy. He has written and spoken on many occasions about the UK’s approach to climate change from an engineering point of view, and was a member of an independent scientific assessment panel to investigate the Climatic Research Unit email controversy in 2010.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Institute of Physics, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and Senior Member of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineering in the USA. He has won prizes for his work from the Institute of Physics, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society.

Date for your diary: Wednesday 28 June 2017
Venue: SCI HQ, 15 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PS

Reception opens at 18.00 and the lecture starts at 18.30. This is a free event.
There will be a drinks and networking reception with the opportunity to meet the speaker after the lecture. Please contact scimarketing@soci.org to book a place on the event. More information about each lecture in the series is available at www.soci.org/public-lectures.

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NOTES TO EDITORS

About SCI
SCI is an inclusive, multi-disciplinary and multi-science forum connecting scientists and business people. SCI promotes innovation and education via forums and networks which advance the commercial application of chemistry related sciences into business for public benefit.

SCI is a unique international forum which anyone can join to share and exchange information, ideas, innovations and research. Members have access to a growing network of member specialists from sectors as diverse as food and bio-renewables, water, environment, energy, materials and manufacturing and health and well-being.

www.soci.org

MEDIA CONTACT:
SCI Marketing Team
scimarketing@soci.org
Rhiannon.Garth-Jones@soci.org
+44 (0)207 598 1562

About SCI
SCI is an inclusive, multi-disciplinary and multi-science forum connecting scientists and business people. SCI promotes innovation and education via forums and networks which advance the commercial application of chemistry related sciences into business for public benefit.

SCI is a unique international forum which anyone can join to share and exchange information, ideas, innovations and research. Members have access to a growing network of member specialists from sectors as diverse as food and bio-renewables, water, environment, energy, materials and manufacturing and health and well-being.

14-15 Belgrave Square,
London SW1

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