Last week, the European Parliament approved a ban on the sale of vehicles with emissions of more than 0 grams of CO2 per kilometre from 2035 in Europe. In addition, they also voted against an amendment that would allow car manufacturers to buy credits for so-called synthetic fuels. Is this the right measure to accelerate the decarbonisation of the transport sector?
The current climate crisis is not only leaving us with a historically warm winter and a decade of record temperatures, but is overlapping with an almost unprecedented energy crisis. Securing energy supplies in a sustainable way is now a challenge where the war in Ukraine adds to the complexity.
The Joint European Torus (JET) has achieved a relevant scientific milestone related to energy production from nuclear fusion reactions. The results confirm some of the technological options selected for the large international ITER experiment. Spain has proposed to build a scientific facility in Granada to develop materials with which to build future reactors.
The dream of obtaining electrical energy from the fusion of two atomic nuclei is a little closer. Results obtained with some of the most powerful lasers on the planet show that one of the strategies to achieve this, nuclear fusion by inertial confinement, works as predicted 50 years ago.