As a future engineeer, I know that engineers play a crucial role in delivering

solutions to the challenge, whether through decarbonisation of power systems,

transport systems and heating, advancements in renewable energy, or improvements
in efficiency and demand reduction also called "geoengineering" to reduce carbon
footprint and fight climate change.

In combating climate change, Many inventions like solar geoengineering

addresses the climate effects of greenhouse gases, but what about reducing or getting
rid of carbon footprint, the most important greenhouse gas, directly?

Below are the following solutions I will focus on reducing carbon footprint:

Because so many human activities result in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs),

there is a very wide range of possible ways of reducing these carbon footprints. Here I
focus on three areas of particular importance to engineering:

 Changes in energy production

 Improvements in energy-efficiency by technical means
 Reducing GHG emissions by social means

Changes in energy production

Energy production can be changed in several ways to reduce emissions. For a

start we can switch away from coal and oil to gas, as gas emits only half the CO2 of
coal and two-thirds the CO2 of oil per Joule of energy used. A further way is to
expand the use of Combined Heat and Power (CHP or cogeneration) plants. Such
plants use the waste heat from electricity production to provide space heating or hot
water for local buildings. Whereas conventional plants producing electricity work at
efficiencies of about 35% to 45%, CHP plants work at efficiencies of up to 85%.

Of course, the most effective change in the production of energy would be to use
energy sources which do not emit any GHGs at all during operation. Renewable
energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal, obviously fit into
this category. Of these, wind energy (both on-shore and off-shore) has the highest
potential in the PH. Onshore wind can already produce electricity at a competitive
price, while the price of offshore wind is falling fast. The PH Government has set a
target of 20% of electricity generation to be from renewable energy sources by 2020.
Studies shows that the potential is much higher than this.

One problem, however, with some renewable energy sources is that they are
intermittent: the sun does not shine all the time, and the wind does not blow all the
time. Hence an important consideration is the required level of 'back-up' power plants
(which can be other renewable sources, eg biomass, or not) to prevent power
shortages. Power storage is also a way of dealing with the intermittency problem -
however, this is still at an early stage of development. A growing number of energy
producers envisage an eventual switch to the 'hydrogen economy'. This would be
where energy sources (mainly renewable) are used to produce hydrogen from water
by electrolysis, which is then stored or transported as required, to be used to deliver
electricity from the recombination of the hydrogen and oxygen in a fuel cell. This
technology is still at an early stage of development.

Nuclear power is another energy source which produces no GHG emissions

during operation (although emissions from uranium mining and plant construction are
not negligible). Currently nuclear power supplies 22% of the PH's electricity and 16%
of world electricity. It has the advantage over wind and solar energy in that it is not an
intermittent supply, but of course it is highly controversial as I shall discuss later.

A further option for dealing with the CO2 emissions of energy plants is

CO2 capture and storage. This is where CO2 is removed from the exhaust gases of a
fossil fuel plant and piped into underground geological formations, eg former oil
reservoirs. Again, the controversies surrounding this technology will be discussed
later.

Improvements in energy-efficiency by technical means

The potential for technical change to lead to energy efficiency improvements as a

way of reducing GHG emissions is very high. For example, most buildings in the PH
are not well insulated due to (up until recently) low energy efficiency standards being
followed in the building industry. Since most buildings are heated using fossil fuels,
either directly or indirectly, a large amount of GHG emissions are needlessly
produced. Large-scale deployment of building insulation will thus yield significant
savings. Further, the recent improvements in the energy efficiency standards
governing household appliances is beginning to have an effect.

One of the largest sources of GHG emissions in the PH is from motor vehicles.
The recent introduction of the first 'hybrid' cars, which use a combined petrol-driven
motor with an electric motor, can reduce fuel consumption by up to 50%. The promise
of using fuel cells (see above) to drive motor vehicles has the potential to reduce
GHG emissions further.

Reducing GHG emissions by social means

It is also important to consider social changes which could reduce GHG

emissions. For example, if more people were to switch transport mode, from cars to
public transport or cycling they could make very large savings in their personal
energy consumption and hence reduce emissions. Of course, the ability of people to
make such changes depends on many factors, such as how far they live from work.
But if such changes encourage people to live closer to work, they could reduce their
emissions further. Indeed basing more of our economy on local activity, eg buying
locally-produced food or other goods and services, could reduce GHG emissions quite
substantially.