Imperial students have contributed to the New Climate Economy report written to inform government action on climate change.

The New Climate Economy is the flagship project of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, which is led by the former President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón. The report provides policy makers with evidence on the actions and policies which can both strengthen economic performance and reduce the risk of dangerous climate change. It concludes that economic growth and action on climate change can be achieved together.

The report finds that one of key drivers of action on climate change will be rapid technological innovation, leading to the tripling of development in low-carbon technologies. The innovation stream of the project was led by Stanford University, in partnership with the Grantham Institute at Imperial.

Six Imperial students were involved in researching the potential economic and environmental impact of disruptive low-carbon technologies, ranging from new types of solar technology to innovative uses for carbon dioxide. The Climate-KIC, based at Imperial, provided funding for the students to travel to California to work with Stanford students on developing business models for their technologies.

Philip Sandwell, from the Department of Physics, looked at the potential of concentrating photovoltaics (CPV).  CPV arrays track the Sun across the sky and concentrate its light on a small area of photovoltaic material that generates electricity. CPV already works more efficiently than familiar flat-plate systems, and costs will come down as installations increase.

Phillip says: “CPV tends to work best with bright, direct sunlight. One early use might be in mining projects in places such as Chile and Australia. Those sites are not on the power grid, but need a lot of electricity.”

Clementine Chambon, from the Department of Chemical Engineering, explored ways in which the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels might be turned into an asset. As well as storing captured carbon dioxide under the ground it can also be used as raw material for fuels and plastics, or to grow algae which can be turned into biofuel.

Clementine says: “There is already a start-up business in Alabama making fuel from algae fed on waste carbon dioxide. Another in Texas produces high-value carbonates from carbon dioxide captured from a cement plant. Approaches such as this could potentially absorb billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide.”

The report has been released a week before world leaders meet in New York for the UN Climate Summit. This is an important stage in international discussions on how to address climate change, next year governments will have to set out how they will contribute to global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. You can find out more about the Grantham Institute’s work on the feasibility and affordability reducing greenhouse gas emissions in our recent blog post.

Read Phillip and Clementine’s blogs about their time at Stanford:

New Climate Economy collaboration with Stanford University – Philip Sandwell

Collaboration with Stanford University – Clementine Chambon