A new report from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) published in August, makes somber reading.

Research by the panel’s cohort of international scientists shows an unequivocal link between climate change and human activity.

The problem

IPCC scientists tell us that the Earth’s surface, is warming up and set to increase until at least the middle of this century.

The report also states that the scale of recent changes to the planet’s climate system is unprecedented and that increasingly common extremes in weather, such as heatwaves, heavy rain, droughts and tropical cyclones are all evidence of climate change.

Although the damage already caused by climate change - to the oceans, ice sheets and global sea levels are irreversible - the IPCC report calls for an immediate and increased commitment to cut greenhouse gases and urges for an immediate worldwide limit on CO2 emissions, in order to try and stop things getting much worse.

The solution?

How does that leave us? Well, we all need to step up and do what we can to help cut greenhouse gas emissions. CO2 emissions and CH4 emissions to improve the UK’s air quality. A good place to start, would be to cut the number of petrol and diesel vehicles on our roads.

The rise of the EV

A rise in the number of electric vehicles on the UK’s roads, indicates that public opinion is changing and that Britain’s drivers are taking a stand. According to nextgreencar.com there are now nearly 260,000 pure-electric cars and 535,000 plug-in models or plug-in hybrids on the UK’s roads. That’s a staggering increase on a few years ago.

What about the infrastructure to charge up this growing fleet of electric vehicles? The answer is, it’s playing catch-up. In order to match demand and to ensure that there are enough reliable and available charging points to satisfy the growing demand and projected EV figures for 2030, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Britain could need to up its number of EV charging points by 1,000%

Although efforts are being made to quickly and substantially increase the number of charging points, one of the problems is that there aren’t sufficient numbers of trained engineers to install them.

The take-up of EV charging training courses is growing, but not fast enough it seems. Experienced electricians are in a great position to seize this new income stream and up-skill in order to help get the roll-out underway.

EV qualifications from LCL Awards

LCL Awards’ Level 3 qualification in the Installation and Commissioning of Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment in Domestic, Commercial and Industrial Locations is aimed at experienced electricians. The award covers the installation of dedicated conductive charging equipment for the charging of pure electric and plug-in hybrid electric road vehicles (PHEV) and includes the extended range of electric vehicles (E-REV).

The installation of both AC and DC charging equipment is featured, intended for plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) complying with BS EN 61851 and “The Code of Practice for Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment Installations” For more information, please get in touch with us.

Electric Vehicles have an important role to play in helping us meet the UK’s air quality legislation and our government’s commitment to climate change targets. The UK government is actively supporting the switch to electric vehicles, why don’t you join them?

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