Back to the Future - Lessons from the Past
Dr Peter Nuttall, Scientific and Technical Advisor to the Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport . This article was published in April 2020, a year before appearing on this blogsite Back to the future - lessons from the Past - In the build-up to the Madrid Climate Summit last year, Fiji leaders, alongside other Pacific states, announced new high ambition targets for its domestic shipping sector. 100% carbon free by 2050 with a milestone of 40% reduction by 2030. Ambitious, challenging, even daunting. But just like winning gold at Rio, it is achievable. 100-odd years ago shipping underwent a fundamental technology revolution, from thousands of years of primary wind and paddle propulsion to fossil-fuel powered underwater propellers. First, we burnt coal to make steam and then we invented the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) to burn heavy oil and then diesel. Finally we could drive a ship against the forces of nature and get to market faster. More re...