Decarbonisation and climate change must be at the heart of the coronavirus recovery

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)

2 min read25 June 2020

The IET agrees wholeheartedly that returning to “the way things were” before the pandemic is not an option.

James Robottom, Sustainability and Climate Change Lead at the IET, said: “The IET agrees wholeheartedly that returning to “the way things were” before the pandemic is not an option. This should be an opportunity to build a better global economy, putting decarbonisation and climate change at the heart of it. While we continue to battle towards recovery from this pandemic in the short term, climate change remains the most significant long-term challenge for the planet.

“Recovering economically, whilst continuing to decarbonise quickly and effectively requires urgent, clear and decisive leadership and relies on establishing the infrastructure, systems and governance for long term sustainability.

“We need to start supporting programmes which provide jobs and are ready for delivery, such as a nationwide roll-out of retrofit, increased work on decarbonising heating and the growth of electric vehicle charging infrastructure as part of a clear plan on systems engineering. The UK has a long history of innovation to look back on, but now more than ever it’s important that this continues, and we find a new normal and build back better.

“Most of these issues will require unprecedented collaborative action and requires a clear strategy for achieving the UK’s Net-Zero target informed by systems engineering principles, which must coherently embrace all aspects of energy production, transport, distribution, demand and efficiency.

“The pandemic has challenged our infrastructures but has shown how vital they are and how important it is that they remain working and are designed to be resilient to further disruption. Engineers have been central to keeping the UK’s infrastructure running and it is essential as part of a green recovery we build greater resilience and climate adaptation into major projects and plan for a flexible and agile system.”