An international research project has been set up with the aim of making renewable energy more affordable than coal within a decade.

The Global Apollo Programme will work on developing innovative ways of storing electricity, smart grids that balance supply and demand and solar and wind energy.

It is hoped that by making cheap, clean energy more readily available, global temperatures will be prevented from rising by more than the 2C seen as the threshold for dangerous climate change.

Backers of the scheme include leading figures from business, government and academia, while leading naturalist Sir David Attenborough has also welcomed the project.

Comprehensive plan

Sir David said: “At last – an authoritative, practical and comprehensible plan that could avert the catastrophe that is threatening our planet.”

The initiative is being proposed by former UK government chief scientist, Sir David King, former BP chief executive Lord Browne, former cabinet secretary Lord O'Donnell, Lord Stern author of a key report on the economics of climate change, former Climate Change Committee chairman Lord Turner, Astronomer Royal Lord Rees and London School of Economics (LSE) economist Lord Layard.

A report by the group, published as the programme is launched, warns that renewable energy has been “starved” of public investment in research and development.

The report's authors said: “The greatest scientific challenge facing the world is the need for clean energy that costs less than that from fossil fuel. Yet only 2% of world R&D (research and development) now goes on that problem.

“In the past, when our way of life has been threatened, governments have mounted major scientific programmes.”

Reducing clean energy costs

Under the plans for the initiative, countries which sign up will commit to spending at least 0.02% of economic output on the internationally coordinated research programme.

A "roadmap committee" will be established to identify the bottlenecks to reducing clean energy costs year-on-year.

Finding ways to store energy so that it is available when and where it is needed for powering buildings and electric vehicles, is "a major research challenge, and cracking it will be a key to cheap and universal clean energy", the report said.

Kieran Crowe, associate partner in resources and energy at Strutt & Parker said: “This research investment is a critical step towards meeting the governments ambitions to reduce our emissions by 80% by 2050.

"This target will require renewable technologies to be available to all and considering the earth receives enough energy from the sun in a single day to power all our needs for a year, then an affordable means of harnessing this energy is a future which should be invested in.

"History shows that at our times of greatest need the most inventive innovations are found. This commitment to R&D should be the next step in this essential journey.”