What can be done about global warming

The problems surrounding the climate change debate as the PM has blamed, is the “trouble with so much international politics: a reluctance to face up to reality and the practical action needed to tackle problems". The problem of global warming cannot be dealt with unless any new agreement includes India and China - exempted from the current protocol because they are classed as developing countries while being responsible for most of Co2 emissions. The US President refused to ratify the Kyoto treaty when 141 countries signed up to it this year because he said it would be too costly to the American economy, and the fact that the fast-growing developing countries were not part of it (BBC, 30 Oct).

Global warming could be ameliorated by reducing significantly the emissions of GHGs into the atmosphere. While it is important to reduce the emissions of all GHGs, the greatest preventative measure would come from reducing Co2 emissions. Emission reductions of Co2 can be accomplished by a combination of several of the following approaches:

Demand side conservation and efficiency improvements, this includes less space heating and better insulation, less air conditioning, use of more fluorescent instead of incandescent lighting, more energy efficient appliances, process modification in industry, and very importantly, more fuel-efficient automobiles. Some measures may even incur a negative cost, that is, consumer savings by using less energy, or at least a rapid payback period for the investment in energy saving devices.

Supply side efficiency measures. Here we mean primarily increasing the efficiency of electricity production. Natural gas combined cycle power plants NGCC emit less Co2 than single cycle coal fired power plants; first, because natural gas emits about one half the amount of Co2 per fuel heating value than coal, and secondly, because the thermal efficiency of combined cycle power plants is in the 45-50% range compared with the 35-38% range of single cycle plants. In the future integrated coal gasification combined cycle power plants IGCC may come on line with a thermal efficiency in the 40-45% range reckoned on the basis of coal heating value. Furthermore, IGCCs may enable the capture of Co2 at the gasification stage, with subsequent sequestration of the captured co2 in geologic and deep ocean repositories (Saylor & Zerai, 2004).

Shift to no fossil energy sources, the choices here are agonizing, because the largest impact could be made by shifting to nuclear and hydroelectricity, both presently very unpopular and fraught with environmental and health hazards. The shift to solar, wind, geothermal, and ocean energy is popular, but because of their limited availability and intermittency, and because of their larger cost compared to fossil energy, a substantial shift to these energy sources cannot be expected in the near future. None of these options can prevent global warming alone. They have to be taken in combination and on an incremental basis, starting with the least expensive ones and progressing to the more expensive ones. Even if the predictions of global climate change were to turn out to be exaggerated, the fact that fossil fuel usage entails many other environmental and health effects, and the certainty that fossil fuel resources are finite, makes it imperative that we curtail fossil energy usage as much as possible.

The use of fossil fuels to supply energy for the use of the world’s population has resulted in the release to the atmosphere of troublesome chemical by products that present harm to humans and other natural species. The technological systems that employ fossil fuel energy have been developed to lessen the amounts of harmful emissions, albeit at significant energy and economic cost. Further improvements can be expected, but at increasing marginal cost. The most severe emission control problem, in terms of economic and energy cost, is that of Co2 a major contributor to global warming. The implementation of policies by national governments and international bodies to curtail the use of fossil energy and the concomitant emissions of Co2 will become a growing task for mankind in this century.

- D. S. Golomb and J. A. Fay, Atmospheric impact of the fossil fuel cycle, University of Massachusetts Lowell, MA

- BBC Online, PM pessimistic on climate treaty, 30 October 2005