Ministers meet students in Leeds who are leading the way towards a low-carbon future

Energy and Climate Change Minister David Kidney and Regional Minister Rosie Winterton visited The University of and met postgraduates studying at the new Doctoral Training Centre in Low Carbon Technologies. Mr Kidney was also given a tour of the £6.5 million project which will fund 50 PhD students over the next 5 years. The Centre will be housed in a new £14.8 million Energy Research Building due to be officially opened at The University of Leeds in 2011.

Mr Kidney, who is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Energy and Climate Change, along with Rosie Winterton, Minister for Yorkshire and The Humber, also took part in a discussion with academics and business representatives about the skills needed to take advantage of a low carbon economy.

Mr Kidney said: “Preventing climate change and securing energy supplies from alternative energy sources will require an urgent and fundamental transformation to low carbon lifestyles and business operations.

“These changes bring tremendous economic and employment opportunities. New jobs for the low carbon economy will involve all sectors, levels and types of work, and we want to ensure that the UK is ready to take advantage of these opportunities.”

Ms Winterton said: “I am delighted to see the investment that the University of Leeds is making in its new Doctoral Training Centre and in developing highly skilled professionals who will be able to realise our vision of a low carbon economy.

“Thanks to our region’s industrial heritage, our geology and geography, Yorkshire and The Humber is uniquely positioned to become a world-leader in low-carbon technology and energy production. The work being done at the centre in Leeds will contribute enormously to achieving this ambition and should encourage more successful collaboration between academia and business.”

The event was part of a drive to gather views from across the UK to feed into The Low Carbon and Resource Efficient Skills consultation document to be published in the Spring.

Professor Paul Williams, the Director of the Centre for Low Carbon Technologies at the University of Leeds, said: “This was an excellent opportunity to highlight the ground-breaking work we’re doing here in Leeds to develop a low carbon future.”

The Centre for Low Carbon Technologies will enable postgraduate students and their tutors to develop cutting edge technologies in transport and energy, carbon storage, climate change and energy system research and low carbon enabling technologies.

The students are studying a 4 year “Integrated PhD and MSc in Low Carbon Technologies”. Each student will develop high-level expertise in a specialist topic whilst working in a multi-disciplinary environment stretching across science, technology, economics, business and policy – a key part of developing our knowledge in a low carbon economy.