Innovation Centre sets sights on decarbonising industry
Enlit Editorial Team
Posted on: 12 July 2021
"It's one of the hardest energy policy nuts to crack", says co-director Benjamin Sovacool.
A ‘just transition’ will be one of the core issues to be tackled by a new research and innovation centre that has been unveiled in the UK.
The Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) is backed by £20 million from UK Research and Innovation and intends to become "the national focal point and international gateway for industrial decarbonisation".
The centre will work closely with the UK's major industrial hot spots plus a diverse range of over 140 partners in a bid to create the world's first net-zero emissions industrial cluster by 2040 and four low- carbon clusters by 2030.
"The interdisciplinary centre will become a leading research program that is truly one of the best in the world, but one that is also instrumental in aiding industry to take the steps necessary towards a net zero future," said the centre's co-director Benjamin Sovacool, who is Professor of Energy Policy at the Science Policy Research Unit at England's University of Sussex Business School.
This article was originally published in The Guide
The IDRIC is a component of the UK's Industrial Decarbonisation challenge, part of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 10-point plan for what he calls a "green Industrial Revolution".
The centre's funding is a slice of a wider £166.5 million government investment designed to accelerate the delivery of critical game-changing technologies to drive Britain's climate change ambitions and create jobs.
Prof Sovacool is one of 11 energy policy experts from the University of Sussex who will be involved in the centre.
He said decarbonising industry "is absolutely central to limiting the impact of climate change but there are no simple solutions - it is one of the hardest energy policy nuts to crack". Jeremy Kent Hall, Professor of Innovation Studies at the University of Sussex Business School, believes the IDRIC's remit "is vitally important work that will hopefully prove to be of tremendous benefit to UK industry but also help to establish a decarbonisation template for the world to follow and act upon".
Dr Bryony Livesey, Challenge Director for the Industrial Decarbonisation challenge, stressed that the introduction of the IDRIC concept "hows the commitment to not only fund large scale decarbonisation efforts, but to make sure we continually learn from and adapt to their early results and challenges".
"By enabling the centre to build evidence on a range of areas from direct costs and emissions to skilled jobs and wider net zero policy, we believe we are creating a more adaptive and responsible path for the UK's big industry to take to remain at the forefront of a global low-carbon future."
This article was originally published in The Guide
