The greenhouse effect, which has serious consequences for the environment, has been a major issue since the 19th century. This sentence brought participants of the Future Energy Talks event to the topic presented by Prof Niall MacDowell under the title “Getting Real About Net Zero.” The event was held on Friday (20/10) in room K.301, Building K, Faculty of Engineering, University of Indonesia and moderated by Dr.Eng. M. Akita Indianto, a young lecturer from FTUI’s Master of Interdisciplinary Energy Systems Engineering programme.
Prof. Niall opened the door to the discussion by looking at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement which aims to limit climate change to below 2°C, with an ideal target of 1.5°C. In his presentation, Prof Niall proposed a critical view of efforts to achieve net zero emissions. For him, preventing the use of oil products is just a simple idea to address a much more complex challenge.
Prof Niall argues that the term net zero has profound social and economic implications. He highlighted the gap between emissions reduction policies and the technological requirements needed to achieve net zero emissions. In this context, technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) are key to minimising the cost of the energy transition. “The availability of CCS is integral to the lowest cost net zero transition, without exception at the national level. No country yet considers CCS to be of no value,” he said.
“We hope that this event will encourage knowledge exchange between academics and industry players in the energy transition process in our country. We also hope that there can be collaboration, whether it is short, medium, or long term to find new ideas for the development of new projects in the field of energy systems,” said Dean of FTUI, Prof. Dr. Heri Hermansyah, S.T., M.Eng., IPU, in his speech.
Professor Niall Mac Dowell is a Professor in Energy Systems Engineering at Imperial College London. He is a Chartered Engineer and a member of IChemE and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His research is focused on understanding the transition to a low-carbon economy. The event was attended by the Senior Vice President of Research, Technology and innovation of PT Pertamina, Dr Oki Muraza, Vice President of Energy Transition and Climate Change of PT PLN, Anindita Satria Surya, M.T., and Head of Engineering Interdisciplinary Education and Research Unit, Prof. Dr. Ir. Widodo Wahyu Purwanto, DEA.
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