Britain ’s electric dreams will never come true while China has a materials advantage | John Naughton

Rare earth elements hold the key to a carbon-free future, but a new report reveals the UK ’s shortcomings and vulnerabilitiesIn his bookElectrify: An Optimist ’s Playbookfor Our Clean Energy Future, Saul Griffith, an American inventor, entrepreneur and engineer, sets out a plan for decarbonising the US: electrify everything. From now on, every time people replace a vehicle or renovate a building or buy an appliance, they should be buying electric. Every new roof must have solar panels, all new housing must be energy efficient and shouldn ’t contain a gas cooker. All that’s required to make this happen is a collective national effort comparable to the mobilisation of the US economy for the second world war. And it could be financed with the kind of low-cost, long-term loans reminiscent of the government-backed mortgages that crea ted the postwar American middle class. QED.Reading Griffith ’s engaging, optimistic book, a wicked thought keeps coming to mind: HL Mencken’s observation: “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.” But Griffith is too smart to be caught in that particular net. There is, though, one serious difficulty with his gran d plan and it goes by the abbreviation CRM.Continue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - July 9, 2022 Category: Science Authors: John Naughton Tags: China Technology Greenhouse gas emissions Electric, hybrid and low-emission cars Xi Jinping UK news Mining Science Chemistry Asia Pacific Source Type: news