Have you ever thought about how everything we do needs energy—whether it’s food, fuel, or electricity? Over the centuries, humans have worked hard to discover the most efficient way of creating energy. Unfortunately, one of our favourite sources, fossil fuels, have massive side effects: Their emissions drive global warming and climate change.
So, we need to move to different sources of energy. Sounds simple? Sadly, we cannot just switch to a new system. We live in a complex world where everything is connected, and we have become very used to fossil fuels.
Take food: The UK imports 40% of its food from other countries, mainly by ship and by air. If we ban all transport that uses fossil fuels immediately, there will not be enough to eat.
Another example is electricity. In 2023, the UK needed fossil fuels for 35% of its electricity generation. If we stopped using fossil fuels right away, we would not have enough power.
This is what the energy transition is all about. We need to allow for some time to adjust. How much time? That depends on how quickly we can discover alternatives and make them a reality. It requires clever people to invent new technologies and make existing ones better. It also requires money.
Did you know that governments offer incentives to get new technologies off the ground? Early adopters and supply chains need help because they are the ones that are taking risks. This kind of help is essentially paid for by taxes. But if you put up taxes too much, then people can’t afford to live. Therefore, governments need to be very careful what they ask their citizens to pay for.
Can you see the three goals we need to balance?
- Make the World a healthy place to live in
- Provide enough energy for our society
- Keep the costs to an acceptable level
How can we achieve all three at the same time? This problem is called the “Energy Trilemma” because it is fiendishly difficult to solve.
With fossil fuels, we thought we had achieved goals two and three, but we failed at goal one. This failure is now impacting the other goals. Climate change causes huge damage, some of which is irreversible.
What can we do? We can achieve energy transition if we work together across countries and communities, today and in the future. This is one of the biggest challenges the World has ever faced, and we need to be honest about just how difficult it will be. Some people can move quicker than others and nobody should be made to feel bad if they cannot afford the fastest change.
And this is where you can help. If you are thinking about what you want to with your life, you have an amazing opportunity. Whether you want to go into science, engineering, programming, finance or marketing – no matter your background or interests, there’s a place for you in this journey.
