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According to a new report, huge fields of crops and plots of forest should be planted in the British countryside to suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
As the country strives to reduce its pollution to greenhouse gases by renouncing fossil fuels, experts have warned that this would not be enough to meet the UK's tough climate targets.
To avoid the worst effects of climate change, countries must actively phase out greenhouse gases that have already entered the atmosphere.
Now, in the forefront of this kind for the UK, scientists have developed an ambitious strategy to achieve this, namely biomass combustion plants and carbon stored deep underground.
This strategy was commissioned by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, but was produced independently by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society.
Together, the approaches have the ability to make the country carbon neutral by mid-century, but scientists warn that there is no time to waste.
"The clear result of the report is that we must act quickly," said Professor Gideon Henderson of Oxford University, who led the team.
10 photographs to show to anyone who does not believe in climate change
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A group of emperor penguins face a crack in sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Kira Morris
2/10
In the middle of a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft is looking for a dry place to go to the shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world facing rising sea levels, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050.
Probal Rashid
3/10
Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull Glacier in Iceland, which she says has developed rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers in Iceland has decreased by 12%.
Tom Schifanella
4/10
The floods destroyed eight bridges and destroyed crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad Valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with numerous glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have receded, creating large, dangerous lakes that can cause devastating floods when shorelines break. Climate change may also increase rainfall in some areas, while causing drought.
Hira Ali
5/10
The smoke – filled with carbon that drives climate change – drifts into a field in Colombia.
Sandra Rondon
6/10
A river once sank along the depression in the dry land of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared due to rising temperatures.
Abrar Hossain
7/10
Sindh province in Pakistan has had a bleak mix of two consequences of climate change.
"Due to climate change, we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crops and feed our animals," says the photographer. "The picture clearly shows that extreme dryness makes large cracks in the clay. The crops are very difficult to grow.
Rizwan Dharejo
8/10
A shepherd moves his flock while he looks for green pastures near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, in northern India.
The region has been severely affected by heat waves and drought.
Riddhima Singh Bhati
9/10
A factory in China is surrounded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organization warned against such pollution, largely due to fossil fuels causing climate change, which constitutes a "public health emergency".
Leung Ka Wa
10/10
Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have become dangerously low in drought-stricken areas of the world, forcing authorities to introduce restrictions on water.
Mahtuf Ikhsan
1/10
A group of emperor penguins face a crack in sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica
Kira Morris
2/10
In the middle of a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft is looking for a dry place to go to the shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world facing rising sea levels, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050.
Probal Rashid
3/10
Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull Glacier in Iceland, which she says has developed rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers in Iceland has decreased by 12%.
Tom Schifanella
4/10
The floods destroyed eight bridges and destroyed crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad Valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with numerous glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have receded, creating large, dangerous lakes that can cause devastating floods when shorelines break. Climate change may also increase rainfall in some areas, while causing drought.
Hira Ali
5/10
The smoke – filled with carbon that drives climate change – drifts into a field in Colombia.
Sandra Rondon
6/10
A river once sank along the depression in the dry land of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared due to rising temperatures.
Abrar Hossain
7/10
Sindh province in Pakistan has had a bleak mix of two consequences of climate change.
"Due to climate change, we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crops and feed our animals," says the photographer. "The picture clearly shows that extreme dryness makes large cracks in the clay. The crops are very difficult to grow.
Rizwan Dharejo
8/10
A shepherd moves his flock while he looks for green pastures near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, in northern India.
The region has been severely affected by heat waves and drought.
Riddhima Singh Bhati
9/10
A factory in China is surrounded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organization warned against such pollution, largely due to fossil fuels causing climate change, which constitutes a "public health emergency".
Leung Ka Wa
10/10
Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have become dangerously low in drought-stricken areas of the world, forcing authorities to introduce restrictions on water.
Mahtuf Ikhsan
"There is no magic bullet, but many technologies and methods have been proposed to eliminate greenhouse gases."
The government has suggested that it will target "net zero" emissions by 2050, when the United Kingdom's greenhouse gas emissions will be canceled.
However, with sectors such as aviation and agriculture that are difficult to clean up, switching to renewable energy will still leave a large amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
"If we are committed to transforming our energy system, our transportation system, our industrial base, the operation of buildings, we could reach about 130 million tons of CO2 equivalent by 2050" said Professor Nilay Shah of Imperial College London.
"To get to zero, we must find methods to eliminate 130 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year."
They estimate that by using already available methods such as tree planting and restoration of natural habitats, it should be possible to eliminate 35 million tonnes of CO2 by 2050. This includes the expansion of United Kingdom forest area of 1.2 million hectares.
Beyond that, the UK will need to invest in technologies that are not widely used, including carbon capture technologies.
The most direct way to achieve this is to remove the CO2 from the air and store it somewhere that it can not hurt, as in underground geological formations.
Nicola Sturgeon mocks Donald Trump about climate change before the UK visit
A more diverted method is to cultivate bioenergy crops that can then be burned to produce energy, with CO2 being released as they are captured and stored. For this technique to be applied on a large scale, large areas of land should be transformed to grow the appropriate bioenergetic plants.
According to Corinne Le Quere, professor at the University of East Anglia.
"People will react to these technologies in different ways and opposition could limit deployment," she said, stressing that it would be vital to mobilize local communities and communicate the costs and benefits. in an effective way.
While the UK has a 9 million pound research program on some of these techniques, Professor Henderson said it was "insufficient" if the type of revolution described in their report was to be implemented.
The team also noted 'signs of early activity', including tree planting targets and coal-fired power plants converted to biomass facilities, but said that it was necessary that the government intervene more.
Such action could include a post-Brexit subsidy scheme to encourage farmers to use their land to store carbon.
These suggestions were widely welcomed by other researchers, who praised the plan's ambition.
"The report is bold in terms of field testing unproven technologies and deploying other technologies. However, it must be daring, "said Dr. Phil Renforth of Cardiff University, who was not involved in the work.
"We desperately need the research described in the report to develop these diverse technologies into achievable solutions."
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