A message from our Director, October 2022

Often we hear the expression 'transition to net zero' or 'net zero carbon'. Transition is not just about new technologies and systems; it's about ways of working, education, and changing habits and approaches previously embedded by generations of reliance on fossil fuels. To meet these challenging targets we have to accelerate transition in all areas, many of which are explored within the Energy Institute. The UK government's recent announcement on expanding oil and gas licencing is extremely disappointing to many. It does not help stimulate the transition to new green technologies or new ways of working and is at odds with IPCC and IEA views that we should be closing down fossil fuel production, not opening up more, which future generations will not thank us for.

The University of Nottingham is developing a Zero Carbon Cluster, and key to that is translation of research to support just transition. The Energy Institute will maintain a pipeline of research from fundamental to higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). The challenge to all of us is to help push the translation of research to these higher TRLs, which means sometimes going out of academic comfort zones but it will be something that future generations will thank us for.

Professor David Grant
Director of the University of Nottingham Energy Institute