clair031

Summary . Carbon capture and storage (or sequestration; CCS ) is contemplated as a major group of technologies that would contribute to reducing the rate of emission of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), a major greenhouse gas, in future decades.   Currently there are a handful of operating or demonstration CCS facilities worldwide.   CCS entails capturing CO 2 from a utility-scale source that burns a fossil fuel such as coal or natural gas; transporting the purified CO 2 to a storage site, and injecting or piping the CO 2 into the storage or sequestering formation.   Many problems remain to make CCS industrially viable for utility-scale facilities.   Resolving these problems requires investment of large sums of money, worldwide, to arrive at practical CCS by about 2020.   Successful development of CCS will make a major contribution to addressing the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the extent of increase of the long-term global average temperatur...

Summary .   This year’s UNFCCC conference to negotiate a climate change treaty convened in Durban , South Africa .   On December 11, 2011 the attending parties agreed to the Durban Platform, embodying new climate change objectives.   For the first time, agreement was reached to negotiate a legally binding world-wide treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions.   The objective is to complete the negotiations by 2015, and to implement them by 2020.   Unfortunately, these dates are greatly extended from earlier timelines.   They permit greenhouse gases to be emitted unconstrained and to continue accumulating in the earth’s atmosphere without sanctions in the interim.   Because of the delay, climate scientists are concerned that the global average temperature will increase considerably more than previously hoped.   This would mean severe changes in climate and weather, leading to increased numbers and severity of extreme weather events. Introduction . ...

Labels: Durban conference, Kyoto Protocol, UNFCCC, IPCC, CO2, greenhouse gases, global warming, climate change, emissions, climate models, climate projections Summary :   The UNFCCC negotiations in Durban are now halfway through the two week schedule for the meeting.   China has proposed terms for agreement, to take effect after 2020, that the developed nations, including the U. S. and the European Union, find unacceptable. In the face of this contentious situation, there is new evidence for a worsening of the world’s climate.   More CO 2 was emitted during 2010 than ever, since start of the Industrial Revolution.   Based on climate models, a new scientific paper projects that large areas of the Northern Hemisphere will warm by 2ºC (3.6ºF) by 2040, within the lifetimes of many living today.   To the extent this occurs, the consequences would be severe. Introduction .   This year’s international meeting for negotiating a successor agreement to the Kyot...