Download - Environment and climate trends (co2)
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
THANK YOU