In 2025, I had the privilege of being in Japan as a member of the UK delegation to RD20. This is a Japanese-led initiative that seeks to strengthen international collaboration between leading research institutes from countries in the G20, all of whom are developing solutions that will help deliver carbon neutrality.
From my perspective, this was an opportunity to spend time with people from very different backgrounds, working in different contexts, which create varying drivers for their activities and a range of responses. And yet, there are still significant areas of overlap, ripe for creating the international collaborations needed if we are to successfully tackle climate change.
Our study about biomass as energy storage
I was there to promote our recent study on the role biomass can play in long-duration storage of energy. This was discussed in the context of the role of biomass within energy systems more generally, and other solutions to the energy storage challenge, as well as the need for additional low-carbon dispatchable power options.
It was clear from the discussions that energy storage is an international concern, as we all seek to overcome our historic reliance on fossil fuels as a concentrated, easily transported store of energy on which our systems have become dependent. In this context, both hydrogen and ammonia have significant international appeal as energy carriers, as do synthetic fuels which are seen as an important way forward for aviation.
There was a lot of interest in the role for AI in future energy systems, recognising both the benefits and challenges it brings. This is clearly going to be an important area for collaboration in the short term. It also became clear that decarbonisation solutions for the global south are not the same as those for the global north. However, because of the complex supply chain interactions around the world, the solutions adopted in one country will have significant impacts elsewhere. We need to be cognisant of this in the UK if we are to continue acting as leaders in the journey towards carbon neutrality.
These differences undoubtedly contribute to difficulties in international collaboration.
Different priorities in international research
I was struck by the difference in emphasis among researchers on the impact of their work, reflecting the way their institutions are funded. For some, their raison d’être is to deliver techno-economic research that directly supports industrial development in their country. For others, there was less consideration of the commercial viability and more emphasis on the evidence needed to establish ‘perfect’ engineering or socio-economic solutions. These differences undoubtedly contribute to difficulties in international collaboration.
Collaboration is not easy, but everyone sees it as necessary, and meetings like this are vital to the process. Ultimately, we will only make progress if individuals want to work together and find the routes through their own institutional structures and funding mechanisms to make it happen.
