The climate challenge is upon us, and we must adapt our country for rapid changes as global temperatures increase by two degrees celsius or more and rainfall patterns alter.
So what do we have to do? We need to increase renewable energy production, carbon capture, nuclear, improved transmission efficiency, biomass and even fusion.
Then we need to consider changes on the industrial side, such as construction, as buildings are responsible for 45 per cent of energy consumption.
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Design, refurbishment and construction processes will all need to improve.
In transport, we will see the impact of low-carbon vehicles, modal shifts to public transport, changes to our road, sea and rail infrastructure and major challenges to power distribution systems if we adopt electric vehicle technologies.
Individuals can help, such as by turning off computers, reducing fuel consumption, and so on.
A driver employing a low-carbon driving style can save up to 40 per cent of fuel consumption.
That kind of saving will only happen if tens of thousands of commercial drivers are trained to drive in a style that reduces emissions. To do that could mean the mass deployment of virtual reality vehicle simulators of the type we are developing at Warwick Manufacturing Group. Advantage West Midlands has made clear some of the immediate skills needs on the ground.
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It said: “There is a need to respond rapidly to meet emerging technology skills in micro-generation, wind/wave and energy efficiency installers.
“This includes retraining plumbers to install photo-voltaics or solar heating, or re-skilling existing engineers for the new wind energy industry.”
Car manufacturers know they need to examine processes in every aspect of production.
For example, we need to integrate manufacturing, information systems and service much more closely, so that it will be simpler for drivers to know if a car is producing more emissions than it should, whether that is related to driving style or a need for servicing.
We do not know yet whether we will be driving hybrids or all-electric cars or some other technology in 20 or 30 years’ time.
So we must ensure that we stand ready to apply and exploit technological breakthroughs. That means being open to collaboration with overseas business, researchers and governments. It means lifting immigration rules that prevent gifted students coming to the 海角视频, and it means accepting that other countries will have research expertise we can’t match so we focus our activities in core areas.
We must fund and provide green engineering and applied research at levels that mean we have innovations to bring to the table ourselves. We need research breakthroughs that other countries will want to invest in and to learn from. I suggest low carbon vehicles, materials technology, plastics electronics and digital engineering as possible core areas.
* Kumar Bhattacharyya CBE is the founder of Warwick Manufacturing Group.