DECC has been honoured by the Queen for its efforts to inform debate and discussion on the challenges we face in building a secure, low carbon energy future for the UK.
At a prestigious ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 11 November 2010, DECC’s 2050 Pathways team won the Science, Engineering and Technology Civil Service award. The awards showcase good practice in innovation and improvement, and celebrate excellence in public service.
The 2050 Pathways Calculator allows users to play Energy and Climate Change Minister and explore the complex choices and trade-offs we will have to make to reach our 80 per cent emission reduction targets by 2050, while matching energy demand and supply.
Since its launch on the DECC website in July the 2050 web tool has had more than 40,000 hits with users creating 392,000 possible pathways to 2050.
Moira Wallace, DECC Permanent Secretary, said:
“It was a pleasure to be at Buckingham Palace last night to see the 2050 team pick up their award. I know the amount of hard work that they put into the project and it’s great to see it recognised. Building a secure, low carbon energy supply is a challenge for the whole country, not just DECC. To meet this challenge we need a mature debate about the big choices ahead of us and we need to start that debate now.
“There is a daunting amount of information underpinning this debate but thanks to the 2050 pathways project anyone can gain a comprehensive insight in to the challenges we face. Congratulations to the team on their award, which shows that even the most thorny issues can be made accessible.”
With 36 different sectors and four different levels of effort covering how the UK produces energy and how we use it, the calculator offers many pathways which will reach our 2050 targets and ensure secure energy supplies.
Some of the choices the UK faces in moving to a secure, low carbon economy, include:
- What should we do to cut demand?
- Or should we rely more on increasing and decarbonising the energy supply?
- How will we produce our electricity?
- Which technologies will we adopt?
DECC was also awarded at the ceremony for its work with other government departments to introduce contracting strategies for electricity and gas that adopt best practice in energy purchasing.