Global innovation spotlight: United Kingdom
Global Innovation Spotlight
Reflecting our global Springwise readership, we explore the innovation landscape and freshest thinking from a new country each week. This week, to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee, we’ve headed to the United Kingdom…
Global Innovation Index ranking: 4th
Climate targets: reduce emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels, net zero by 2050
Sustainability issues
Air Pollution – Nearly every home in the UK is exposed to levels of air pollution that exceed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Ninety-seven per cent of homes are exposed to pollution levels that breach the guidelines for at least one of the three main pollutants, with 70 per cent exposed to levels that breach the limit for all three. The UK’s own legal limits are set much higher than the WHO Guidelines, but many urban areas still exceed even these thresholds.
Noise pollution – After air pollution, noise causes the second-highest pollution-related burden of disease in Western Europe. One study has estimated the medical cost of noise-related hypertension and associated conditions in the UK to be £1.09 billion per year. And the number of people in England exposed to road and railway traffic noise exceeding WHO guidelines is 11.5 million and 1.5 million respectively.
Antimicrobial resistance – Antimicrobial drug-resistant infections are becoming more common in the UK as they are elsewhere in the world. And antibiotic-resistant bacteria were estimated to cause 2,228 deaths in the UK in 2020. In the past drug-resistant infections were considered a problem for hospitals, but increasingly patients are acquiring resistant infections from the wider environment.
Sector specialisms
Fintech
Deep tech
Impact tech
Source: Tech Nation
Three exciting innovations from the UK
A PORTABLE EV CHARGER TO ELIMINATE RANGE ANXIETY
One fear for many electric vehicle (EV) owners is the thought of running out of juice miles from the nearest plug. Now, startup ZipCharge is poised to eliminate range anxiety with their ZipCharge Go portable charger. The company describes the Go as a ‘flexible and convenient charging solution’ for those without easy access to fixed charging points. ZipCharge plans to offer the Go on a subscription service, starting at £49 a month. It will also offer the device for sale at around the same cost as a fully-installed home charging port. Read more.
ELECTRIFICATION OF HEATING PROCESSES COULD ELIMINATE UP TO 30 PER CENT OF INDUSTRIAL EMISSIONS
The bulk of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions from industry are caused by just three sectors: petrochemicals and chemicals, iron and steel, and cement production. The reason these industries are so emissions-intensive is that they involve processes that require extremely high temperatures. Technology developed by academics at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the UK, and the University of Ghent in Belgium, uses electricity from renewable sources to achieve process temperatures of up to 1700 degrees Celsius – sufficient to replace fossil fuel burning in processes where electrification was previously impossible. Read more.
AN ALGAE-POWERED MICROPROCESSOR COULD BE USED FOR IOT DEVICES
By 2035 there are expected to be one trillion Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices. Finding the most effective and sustainable way to power all these devices is a key challenge for innovators and researchers alike. Algae are one potential power source, and researchers from the University of Cambridge recently put it to the test. Algae naturally harvest energy from the sun through photosynthesis, producing a tiny electrical current that can power a microprocessor. Read more.
Words: Matthew Hempstead
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1st June 2022