ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE TRENDS

CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND CONCENTRATIONS

ON THE RISE AS KYOTO ERA FADES

According to on-site measurements by the Scripps Institute of

Oceanography, global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations

reached-

391.3 ppm in 2011 , from

388.5 ppm in 2010 & 280 ppm in preindustrial times

Carbon dioxide accounts for more than 70 percent of the greenhouse

gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere and it is the most important

anthropogenic greenhouse gas responsible for global warming

After declining 1.5 percent in 2009, global CO2 emissions jumped 5.8

percent in 2010, an unprecedented increase in the last two decades. CO2

levels are now 45 percent above the 1990 level. Levels of methane (CH4)

and nitrous oxide (N2O) have also increased significantly, but they

account for a smaller share of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere—17

percent and 8.7 percent, respectively.

CO2 EMISSIONS FROM ENERGY SECTORS

Deforestation and logging, forest and peat fires, and decomposition of

organic carbon drained in peat soils are estimated at around 14% of

global CO2 emissions; however, this number is highly uncertain and

varies from 15% to 30% in last years. Industrial processes, mainly the

production of cement, constitute another 5% of global CO2 emissions.

The energy sector represents the largest source of CO2emissions

worldwide. In 2009, some 41% of energy-related CO2 emissions

came from electricity generation and heating. Another 23% were

produced by road, air, and marine transportation; 20% came from

energy used in the industrial sector; and the residential sector

accounted for 6% of energy-related emissions.

In 2010, coal combustion constituted 40% of energy related CO2

emissions, while oil represented 37% and natural gas 20 percent.

Burning coal generates about twice as much CO2 as gas and oil do

because of the larger carbon content per unit of energy released.

The year 2010 was marked by a general growth in CO2 emissions in

developing countries as well as richer industrial ones.

Annex I countries—which includes most OECD (Organization for

Economic Cooperation and Development) countries that were

assigned internationally legally binding emissions reduction targets

and all economies in transition—reduced their emissions from 1990

levels

Annex I countries were expected to meet the 4.6% reduction

mandated by the Kyoto Protocol by the end of 2012.But some

countries, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Spain, will

not meet their reduction targets.

The United States, which signed but never ratified the Kyoto Protocol

will also be unable to meet its original reduction target of 6 % , as its

greenhouse gases have increased by 12.9 % since 1990

WORLD’S LARGEST EMITTER OF CO2

17th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in December 2011,

Japan, Russia, and Canada have decided not to take on additional

emissions reduction targets in the coming decade.

In early 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

released its strongest statement yet linking CO2 emissions and

increasing global temperatures, stating with more than 90% certainty

that the warming over the past 50 years has been caused by human

activities. Growth of CO2 levels in the atmosphere has been

accompanied by significant temperature increase in the past decade:

the global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest

since 1880. NASA scientists established 2000–09 as the warmest

decade on record since 1880.

A recent report by the London-based Royal Society estimated that at

4° Celsius of global temperature increase, which is in the middle of

the range of current projections, half the world’s current agricultural

land would become unusable, sea levels would rise by up to two

meters, and around 40 percent of the world’s species would become

extinct.

CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE( CCS)

CCS has three steps-

1. Capturing CO2 from a source such as a power plant’s flue gas

2. Moving this CO2 to a storage site

3. Injecting it into a storage reservoir

There are three primary methods for that first step in power plants:-

pre-combustion , post-combustion, and oxy-fuel combustion

Pre-combustion combines gasification of a solid fuel with CO2

separation to yield a hydrogen gas, which can then be burned without

emitting greenhouse gases

In post-combustion, CO2 is extracted from flue gases that emerge

from the combustion process

Oxy-fuel technology burns fuel in oxygen mixed with recycled flue

gas rather than nitrogen-rich air, producing a CO2 -rich gas that is

ready to be stored.

For power generation, pre-combustion and post-combustion

technologies have attracted similar levels of investment $3.5 billion

and $3.3 billion, respectively. Investments in oxy-fuel CCS are

significantly smaller at $1.7 billion.

The main options for CO2 storage are deep saline aquifers and

depleted oil and gas fields. Onshore depleted oil and gas fields are the

cheapest option but a majority of the world’s identified storage

capacity is found in deep saline aquifers.

CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE( CCS)

In March 2012, the Global CCS Institute identified 75 large-scale

fully integrated CCS projects in 17 countries at various stages of

development -4 projects fewer than at the end of 2010. Only 8 of these

plants are operational.

These 8 projects store a combined total of 23.18 million tons of

carbon dioxide a year, about as much as emitted annually by 4.5

million passenger vehicles in the United States.

At the end of 2011, the United States remained the largest funder of

large-scale CCS projects ($7.4 billion), having allocated $6.1 billion

to projects and with an additional $1.3 billion set aside for future

projects. The European Union has announced the next largest amount

of funding ($5.6 billion), although Canada has actually allocated more

money ($2.9 billion)

There are now 7 large-scale CCS plants currently under construction,

bringing the total annual storage capacity of operating and under-

construction plants to 34.97 Mtpa. If the remaining 60 projects under

planning or development are built, they would add an additional

134.25 Mtpa of capacity. The total storage capacity of all active and

planned large-scale CCS projects is 169.2 Mtpa , equivalent to only

about 0.5 percent of global emissions from energy use in 2010

A total of 13 projects were canceled or post-poned in 2011

Governments and industry have continued to invest heavily in CCS

with the aim of substantially decreasing CO2 emissions and combating

climate change. Funding for CCS is mostly targeted at fossil fuel

power plants, especially greenhouse gas–intensive coal plants

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