The UK will need around 7,500 offshore wind turbines to meet a carbon emissions target of zero by 2050

The UK will need around 7,500 offshore wind turbines to meet a carbon emissions target of zero by 2050, the Committee on Climate Change said.

This compares with the current 1,900, including those at the Robin Rigg wind farm in the Solway Firth, pictured.

It would mean wind turbines being built on up to 2 per cent of the UK coastline. They would generate 75 gigawatts of power, compared with 8GW today.

The wind turbine industry will help offset job losses of around 28,000 in the coal, oil and gas sectors by 2030, the report said.

It suggests the sector will create around 27,000 jobs, although mostly in manufacture and export.

The UK will also need to increase tree cover from 12 per cent of the country to 17 per cent to draw carbon dioxide out of the air, the report said.
The report recommends every household takes steps to help Britain meet its climate targets.

They include eating 20 per cent less lamb, beef, and dairy. Experts back planting enough forest to cover an area the size of Yorkshire – five per cent of the UK surface area

Banning the sale of new petrol cars by 2030 instead of the current 2040 is also floated and homes could be fitted with ‘smart’ systems to help control heat and power use, as well as improvements in insulation and double glazing.
The Paris Agreement, which was first signed in 2015, is an international agreement to control and limit climate change.

It hopes to hold the increase in the global average temperature to below 2°C (3.6ºF) ‘and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C (2.7°F)’.

It seems the more ambitious goal of restricting global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) may be more important than ever, according to previous research which claims 25 per cent of the world could see a significant increase in drier conditions.

In June 2017, President Trump announced his intention for the US, the second largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world, to withdraw from the agreement.

The Paris Agreement on Climate Change has four main goals with regards to reducing emissions:

1) A long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels

2) To aim to limit the increase to 1.5°C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change

3) Goverments agreed on the need for global emissions to peak as soon as possible, recognising that this will take longer for developing countries

4) To undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with the best available science