Thread by @TomTomnicholas1

The UK Conservatives have just touted fusion energy by 2040 as a key climate policy at their party conference.

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

I'm a fusion researcher, and that's rubbish.

THREAD 1/10

The main international fusion effort is centred around ITER, a huge experiment which is currently being built in the South of France.

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ITER is a major step: it is the first planned fusion device to produce more energy out from the plasma than is put into it.

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However ITER is not a power station.
The plan (for most of the world, including the EU and UK) is to build a Demonstration fusion power plant ("DEMO") after ITER demonstrates this technology.

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But ITER is a huge beast of a project, and isn't scheduled to run at full power until 2035. That makes the plans for DEMO more like 2050+. Not 2040!

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There are also some start-ups who are hoping to achieve a power plant considerably earlier, but given how ambitious that is, relying on them is not at all a sound climate policy. (so please take notes @AndrewYang)

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Remember that the @IPCC_CH have said we we need to get to net-zero emissions by 2050 to have a reasonable chance of not exceeding 1.5C of warming!

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Beating climate change requires urgent and far-reaching action across all sectors. Even a total decarbonisation of the electricity grid is only one step. Much more is required of the government than just a few more electric cars and wind turbines.

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The Conservatives proposing fusion as a climate policy is:
a) too little too late
b) only deals with part of the emissions problem
c) misleadingly optimistic
d) inconsistent with what the fusion scientists have told them!

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The possible role for fusion would be as a energy source in a post-carbon society. Climate policy today has to concentrate on deploying existing technologies immediately.

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The @Conservatives are completely failing on climate: they are currently only on track to meet 1/25 of the targets set by the UK Committee on Climate Change, which are needed to decarbonise by 2050.

It's another example of the gulf between their climate policy and reality.

END

@ChiefExecCCC @beisgovuk @KwasiKwarteng @KevinClimate

@James_BG

My bit about how #fusion research isn't valid #ClimateChange policy was just published by @ConversationUK:

theconversation.com/conservative-n…

thanks @J_E_Marley !

Look up @iterorg , @UKAEAofficial and @GlassofSeawater for more about fusion, and @IPCC_CH @theCCCuk, and @ProjectDrawdown for more about what does constitute climate policy.