Transport in the Low Carbon Age

Minerva lecture on 21 February given by Professor James Turner for the Minerva Series. Society has become used to the fact that personal transportation is really affordable. Over the past 130 years this situation has arisen with no stimulus from government because of the favourable economics that have evolved. However, the use of fossil fuels to power transportation rightly means that action has to be taken if we are to avoid climate change. The lecture discusses the scale of the challenge, some of the alternatives to the incumbent technology, whether these are practical to implement within the economic model, and postulates an alternative scenario which will also allow decarbonization of petrochemicals and other transport modes. The conclusion reached, however, may not be entirely in line with current policy. http://www.bath.ac.uk/events/transport-in-the-low-carbon-age/