Since the Industrial Revolution, humanity has become increasingly addicted to oil, coal and gas. But with climate change threatening to spiral out of control, the time has come to accelerate our transition to alternative energy sources.
Our burning of fossil fuels dates back millennia, but our reliance on them in the past two centuries has increased dramatically. Solar, wind, tidal and geothermal energy, as well as advances in energy storage offer greener alternatives. That's before we even get to nuclear fusion, long considered the Holy Grail of energy solutions—a clean and virtually limitless supply of energy that could in principle provide all our power with almost no carbon emissions—and large scale fusion projects worldwide appear tantalisingly close to achieving it. Although some claim that fusion is 30 years away and always will be.
How can governments, businesses, scientists and citizens work together to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy? This virtual panel discussion aims to find out.
Speakers include:
- Professor Sir Chris Llewellyn-Smith FRS: Emeritus Professor of Physics, Oxford University, former Director-General of CERN and Chair of ITER.
- The Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP: Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
- William Kamkwamba: Malawian inventor, co-author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and founder of the Moving Windmills Project.
- Emma Howard Boyd: Chair of the Environment Agency.
- Professor Jim Al-Khalili FRS (Chair): Theoretical physicist, author, broadcaster and presenter of BBC Radio 4's The Life Scientific.
