Which one of the above is the odd one out?  The engineer; the other two don’t live in the real world.  The Institute of Mechanical Engineers have released a report suggesting that the UK government’s plan to cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 are physically impossible.  They argue that there is insufficient capacity in the economy to manufacture the wind turbines and nuclear reactors required and that crucially there are insufficient trained engineers in the workforce to deliver these projects within the government’s projected timeframe.

The response from the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was as follows:

“The Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ can’t do, won’t do attitude is sending out a defeatist message ahead of the crucial climate change talks in Copenhagen.  The truth is that if we act now we can not only beat climate change but gain from the green benefits that will flow in terms of jobs and investment from going low carbon. That’s what our transition plan is already doing, so it’s a shame the Institute is not embracing the vast opportunities available for engineers in the shift to a low carbon economy.”

So there!  There’s nothing like reasoned engagement with criticism from government.  Statements such as this make me see why this government is lampooned in Private Eye as being akin to the Soviet regime.  If it’s in the government’s five year plan it must be possible.  Be quiet you unpatriotic, defeatist, intellectual.  What could you possibly know about a shift to a low carbon economy?

Economists are not well renowned for existing in the real world either but on this occasion I think would have to back the engineers.  Too often politicians and economists forget that when considering issues of macro-economics the constraint is real production.  If financial flows (such as the ‘investment’ in the above statement) are to mean anything they have to be backed up with real, valuable things.  This is where engineers come in.  New economic capacity is built over time rather than appearing magically out of the blue.  Transition will not occur through government decree or by clever financing but by practical people building the new systems we need.

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