The Potential Of Carbon Capture And Sequestration

Dr James Hansen’s argumentative essay, “A Solution to the Climate Problem,” discusses his premise that it is imperative for humankind to deal with carbon dioxide emissions, which he believes needs to be phased out by the mid-21st century. He begins with the current paradigm in government efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and claims that so far it has been a lot of talk and action in the other direction. Dr Hansen argues that while governments pay lip service to agreements such as the Kyoto Accord, they are going full steam ahead with projects that will result in increased carbon dioxide emissions, such as going forth with coal-fired power plants, coal-to-liquids, hydraulic fracturing, and tar sands oil extraction. Dr Hansen believes

But based on the previous analysis, for Canada, the method that can impact carbon dioxide emissions the most is the carbon tax system. A proper carbon tax will deter fossil fuels and encourage clean energy (Carbon Tax or Cap-and-Trade?, 2014). The carbon tax will provide a predictable price for carbon dioxide emissions for Canadians. As well, with the carbon tax system, there is more motivation to adhere to regulations because it will become a standard. The revenue generated from the taxation will also assist Canadians by ultimately facilitating greener practices by subsidization and funding environmentally conscious research. Finally, the practicality of reducing emissions under a carbon taxation system is much more functional than the cap-and-trade program. The carbon tax system has been cited to both grow the economy while reducing emissions. That is why a carbon tax system is a superior approach to the experimental cap-and-trade program for reducing emissions and growing the economy (Brander,

Tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere every day and the consequence is the destabilization of Earth’s climate and damage to existing and endangered ecosystems. In order to avoid these ramifications, carbon emissions must be reduced. Industrial nations like the United States rely heavily on the burning of billions of tons of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas, as their primary source of energy generation. Unfortunately, this has led to the United States being one of the top leaders in carbon emissions in the world along with India and China (Woodard, 2007, pg. 27). A proposed solution that has already been implemented in several nations is the carbon tax (CO2 tax), which puts a price on and taxes the carbon dioxide emitted from the burning of fossil fuels and makes polluters pay the price for the emission of their negative externalities into the environment. As fuel follows through with the combustion process, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere where it remains. The carbon dioxide traps the heat in the Earth’s atmosphere leading to a rise in global warming and climate change (Carbon Tax Center, 2016a, What’s a Carbon Tax section, para. 2). A carbon tax can quickly and easily be implemented by the United States federal government and has the potential to conserve the environment by reducing carbon emissions,

Government enacted solutions are probably the most effective ways to reduce carbon emissions and to control pollution since unfortunately the majority of individuals mainly act to their own self-interest and are not concerned with the future of the planet. This is a prime example of the tragedy of the commons, which is the exploitation of a common resource. In this case the common resource is the atmosphere. The first method proposed is the carbon cap trade system. The term cap means the limit or the maximum of the amount of pollutant to be emitted. A trade refers to the transfer of permits that have to be bought by firms that need to increase their volume of emissions from firms that require fewer permits 1. The carbon tax method is a tax on the carbon content of fuels — effectively a tax on the carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels 2. So, which system would be best for the government to enact to reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere?

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a means of separating out carbon dioxide (CO2) when burning fossil fuels and then disposing of it either underground or at or under the sea bed. Australia’s concern for the environment is one reason for them wanting to contribute to the development of CCS. In addition they also have the wealth to be able to investigate and implement this technology. India and China, on the other hand, despite their phenomenal economic growth are still relatively new economies who perhaps do not have

Much policy discussion about climate change suggests that surplus carbon emissions are the result of failure of the market. Since the ongoing costs of environmental degradation and climate change are not internalized in pricing fossil fuel; a commonsense (and widely flavored by policy makers in the international community) economic solution is to internalize the cost of carbon emissions. Cap and trade emissions trading schemes have proven largely popular in the global policy-making community, as they enable market flexibility and allow for international targets to be met.

This is not only a benefit to the environment, but it also benefits the shareholders as a more efficient company will turn a better profit. Suncor has made it a goal to improve energy efficiency by 10% by 2015. To do this is had focused on developing technologies to increase energy efficiency and recapture. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), Integrated CO2 Network (ICO2N) and CO2 Capture Project (CCP3) are all developed policy and technology projects that have been deployed throughout the Suncor organization. Suncor is also taking a leadership role in Carbon Management Canada (CMC). Suncor is revisiting future growth project designs to evaluate GHG reduction opportunities. Suncor is also participating in advanced research on GHG abatement technologies through CMC, ICO2N, CCP3 and other groups.

In fact, “95 percent of the CO2 emitted each year is produced by nature” (Mathews Jr, NPA). It is not a dangerous pollutant that is clogging up the air. This is because Co2 “It is tasteless, colorless, nontoxic to humans at concentrations up to 13 times present levels and is essential to life” (Mathew Jr, NPA). Burning of wood and plastic or paper is a real harm that is not being controlled by the government. And with modern technology it can be used to replace those pollutants and be released harmlessly “Modern power stations have extensive filtration equipment which ensures that the exhaust gases are harmless natural gases already present in the atmosphere” (Forbes, 2013).

Firstly, it can effectively decrease the total amount of carbon emission by changing the behavior of numbers of carbon-based industries, especially when the price on emission is high enough. For example, according to the result from the case study for the effectiveness of implementing carbon pricing in Australia, “more reasonable emission reduction can be observed at the carbon price of above $46. In fact, increasing the carbon price to double its 2012 rate would result in about four times improvement in carbon emission”(Behnam,et,al, 2013). Putting it in another way, it is not hard to understand that the industries with imposed carbon tax will automatically switch the conventional way of generating energy from the combustion of fossil fuels to a more environmental friendly way in which taking advantage of cleaner renewable resources like wind, solar can reduce the amount of carbon if the cost of emitting greater greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is higher than the benefit of doing that. In addition, the carbon price will promote the potential development of clean technologies. For example, “a carbon price will lead to growing US demand for green technologies to reduce CO2 emission, which will incentivize greater levels of global R&D into such technologies”(Meltzer, 2014). To demonstrate, it is a noteworthy fact that more and more scientists will develop an increasing number of clean technologies if the fund collected from the carbon tax is financially sufficient enough to support for their researches. In effect, Lawrence & Koshy (2000) found that, “carbon taxes therefore provide a double dividend-internalizing the cost of the environmental harm from CO2 emission and producing green technologies through induced innovation”. Beside that, in the cap and trade system, the exchange of permit for carbon emission is not

Carbon capture and storage is in a race against time. The United Nations and International Energy Agency have determined that in order to avoid catastrophic changes in our climate patterns and ecosystems, we must reduce our greenhouse gas emissions annually at an unprecedented rate in order to avoid a 2 degree Celsius rise in global average temperatures by 2050. A rise that has become synonymous with the acceptable "safe" limit of a climate catastrophe threshold. To meet the 2 degree Celsius goal, the International Energy Agency says a minimum of 110 additional CCS projects at power plants and

CO2 is the most significant greenhouse gas, which mainly comes from the use of fossil fuels. Many people feel that content of CO2 in the atmosphere is the main reason for manmade global warming. The main sources of CO2 emissions involve electricity generation, industrial processes, fumes from transportation and commercial buildings and use. Emissions of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, to the atmosphere are expected to cause even more of a significant change in global climate (Davison, 2007). The main focus to try to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is to reduce the amount that is released from coal-fired power plants. Greenhouse gas emissions that involve the productions of electricity come from natural gas production and coal-fired power plant operations. Natural gas production accounts for twenty-four percent and coal-fired power plant operations accounts for seventy-five percent, while the other one percent is caused by other electricity generation operations. The main reason why coal-fired power plants have a higher percentage of emissions is because the sulfur content of coal is much higher than that of other fossil fuels (Jarmaillo et al., 2007). This proves that there is a great need to find an alternative fossil fuel to use instead of coal. Although coal is easy to mine, transport and process for the electricity generation process, it is also the

The aim of this paragraph is to analyse the costs involved with the implementation of CCS technologies in UK power plants. It is estimated that in the UK, CCS could cost every household up to 10% more per year for electricity (Haszeldine, R.2009) however this cost is predicted to reduce the necessary costs of CO2 removal in 2050 by a factor of 10, which will likely save the country more money in the long run. The greatest cost to the UK when discussing the implementation of CCS technology in UK power stations is carbon capture.

'The Impact of Carbon Capture technologies on Climate Change: Methods for rapid sequestration of CO2 '.

What has changed in the last few hundred years is the additional release of carbon dioxide by human activities. Fossil fuels burned to run cars and trucks, heat homes and businesses, and power factories are responsible for about 98% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, 24% of methane emissions, and 18% of nitrous oxide emissions. Increased agriculture, deforestation, landfills, industrial production, and mining also contribute a significant share of emissions. In 1997, the United States emitted about one-fifth of total global greenhouse gases.

The Paris Agreement, at the Conference of Parties 21 (COP 21) aimed to limit average rise in global surface temperatures to ‘well below 2 Degrees Celsius (C)’ above pre industrial levels . The question is how can this lofty target be achieved? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) predicts an overshoot of atmospheric concentrations of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) beyond 450 parts per million (ppm) in the near future; and suggests that to rectify this, substantial emission reductions and wide spread deployment of bio energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) along with other NETs will be required by the second half of the 21st century .