The Future is Electric

Tony Heslop the sustainability manager at the world’s largest chemical company 巴斯夫 , gave an inspiring presentation at the University of Salford last week. The purpose of his presentation was to reiterate the scale and severity of climate change, and to remind us that as the next generation of chemists, the future is in our hands.

I admired Tony’s positive and enthusiastic approach, to what is for many people an overwhelming topic. As the reality of the situation is, within the next 26 years the chemical industry, that contributes to 6% of global emissions needs to adopt a drastic change in order to meet the net zero targets.

Electricity is going to be at the forefront of overcoming climate change however, that comes with its own complications. This is because we don’t yet have a reliable source of renewable energy, to keep up with the electricity demand.

Throughout the talk, Tony highlighted all the aspects of our lives that will be affected by climate change, and this altered my perspective, as I recognised it isn’t all about the environment, and that it would affect food security, health, the economy, and many other major areas of society.

This talk inspired me, knowing that as a chemist I have the ability to help make a difference. Overall, what I took from this talk was that it’s important to take responsibility for your contribution to global warming on any scale, and ultimately think about who is going to be affected by your actions.