The Role Of Carbon Capture And Storage On Climate Change Mitigation

In the last 100 years, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased, causing the Earth to warm by an average of 0.6 degrees celsius, largely a result of burning fossil fuels for energy, transportation, and land use changes increased for food production. The basic science is straightforward and climate researchers have shown that gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and others can trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere, causing a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. Human activities such as industry, transport, energy generation and deforestation all produce these greenhouse gases. In the last 20 years, concern has grown that global warming is inevitable and now considered most probably caused by man-made increases in

Increasing greenhouse gas concentrations are expected to have significant impacts on the world?s climate on a timescale of decades to centuries. Evidence from long-term monitoring studies is now accumulating suggests that the climate of the past few decades is anomalous compared with

Global warming is the environmental and social changes caused by emissions of greenhouse gases. Human activities have been the primary cause of this significant change, resulting with extreme weather conditions, increasing sea levels, and climate changes. In this paper I will compare and contrast natural versus anthropogenic climate changes of global warming, mitigation strategies, mitigation effectiveness, policy implications, costs, and address some policy changes to help stabilize global climate.

Climate change is a threat that has been in existences for years, but appears to be a greater threat to the world currently. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there is more than 90 percent certainty that emissions of heat-trapping gases from human activities have caused “most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century” (IPCC, 2007).

Climate change is influenced by the greenhouse effect which is the increase of Carbon dioxide, Methane, Ozone and Nitrogen Oxide. On one hand, the presence of these gases in the atmosphere make the earth habitable with respect to regulating the earth’s temperature. However, an increase in the concentration of these gases results in trapping energy in the atmosphere and this in turn increases earth’s temperature. “Global greenhouse gas emissions have grown since pre-industrial times, with an increase of 70% between

“For future generations, big trouble” (Gillis). Regardless of what those 1 in 5 people think, our future generations are in danger of heavier rainfall, longer and more intense droughts, more intense storms, destabilization of governments, waves of refugees, and melting of the polar ice caps - which would lead to the flooding of most of the world’s coastal cities. This could all take anywhere to thousands of years to play out, which provides a cushion of time for civilization to adjust, and hopefully it does. Although, the collapse of agriculture which would throw civilization into chaos much sooner. Studies show “efforts to limit emissions would reduce these risks, or at least slow the effects, but it is already too late to eliminate the risks entirely”

The debate surrounding global climate change affects millions of people. In fact, the rate at which our climate temperatures are changing due to greenhouse gas emissions is alarming. Carbon dioxide is the number one greenhouse gas emission that human beings so efficiently and effectively emit into the atmosphere. It 's all around us, all the time. Scouring our air, and our lungs. According to the data in a study done by the E.P.A. in 2013, Carbon Dioxide accounted for approximately 82 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Warmer temperatures, depleting glacial ice sheets and increased ocean acidity are just a few of the growing concerns seen around the globe. But, nothing concerns scientists and engineers more

One of the most compelling and difficult environmental problems society is facing today is climate change. People do not realize how much the environment has changed for the worse in the last ten years, until they are told that the last two decades of the 20th century have been the hottest in the last 400 years, according to climate studies (Conserve Energy Future). Today the carbon dioxide levels have reached 396.81 parts per million (ppm). “Carbon dioxide (CO2) has also increased over the last 100 years-- from about 300 ppm to 370 ppm. Interestingly, the majority of these additions have occurred in the last 50 years, when temperature increases have been slowest” (geocraft). There are no known solutions yet to reverse these effects in the

This research is intended to further the understanding of how the Earth’s climate will be affected with rising anthropogenic emissions.

Current scientific knowledge on climate change already demands that policymakers act now to prevent climate change from progressing beyond what is already “in the pipeline,” and recent studies show we must act now in order have a chance at eventually bringing greenhouse gas levels down below current levels if we want to avoid irreversible catastrophic changes to the Earth’s climate.

The world continuously faces a variety of threats every day, from natural disasters to terrorist, but one threat that society predominately contributes to all on their own, is climate change. There are many feasible explanations for the global threat of climate change. These explanations include but are not limited to, the act of deforestation to the rainforest and other trees, green house gas emissions, and sulfate aerosol, which cause poor air quality.

Anthropogenic emissions of CO2 as well as their effects on the climate increase on a daily basis. With the current situation of things in the world, it is unlikely for renewable energy resources to replace fossil fuels as the major sources of energy anytime soon (Wennersten et al, 725). Therefore, Carbon capture and storage (CCS) seems to be one of the most viable options to reduce the current rate of anthropogenic emissions of CO2. Sustainability is a key factor in determining whether or not CCS becomes a major technology in limiting anthropogenic emissions of CO2. That is, the benefits of CCS should outweigh its costs. In this paper, I 'm going to look at carbon capture and its feasibility as a key factor in limiting anthropogenic emissions of CO2.

After two decades of deliberations (Obergassel et al. 2016: 3), the international community has finally created an accord in which every state will play a role in trying to accomplish the major environmental goal of our time, preventing dangerous levels of global warming. On December 12, 2015, at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 195 nations decided to adopt the Paris Agreement (Obergassel et al. 2016: 7). Upon being signed, the Paris Agreement has been widely hailed as a historic diplomatic success (Harvey, Fiona 2015). It aims to prevent the climate from warming to dangerous levels, with dangerous being quantified as the specific goal of “holding the increase in

The COP21’s commitment to bring rise in global average temperatures to below 2C seems unachievable given the current rate of global Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, slow pace of mitigation efforts and inadequate emission pledges- nationally determined contributions (NDC’s) . The cumulative atmospheric concentration of CO2 and other GHGs has been building up since early in the Industrial Revolution . But the last two decades have had the fastest growth in emissions despite combined efforts by the international community to curb them . This has had immense impact on natural ecosystems.

Implementing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reduction policies is motivated by the occurrence of climate change and its projected damage to world economies, ecosystems and communities. Climate change is becoming increasingly urgent in the world sphere with its main cause being observed anthropogenic and thus certain mitigation and adaptation policies must be put in place to attempt to slow the current rate of warming and allow world economies to adapt to the already inevitable effects (Stern, 2006). The targets outlined in the Stern Review require an ideal abatement resulting in stabilised CO2 levels of 450 parts per million (ppm), which requires stronger mitigation on