Bury Climate-Warming Gas, Scientists Say

CLIMATE SCIENCE

Current cost estimates for the process (illustrated) range from 15 to 75 dollars per tonne of CO2.

Paris (AFP) Sep 21, 2005
Deep underground storage of carbon dioxide could prevent between 20 and 40 percent of global emissions, largely responsible for global warming, between now and 2050, according to a report by UN scientists obtained by AFP.

Between 220 and 2,200 billion tonnes of CO2 could be economically stored underground in geological structures such as empty oil and gas fields and in the deep ocean between now and 2100, the report said.

This currently experimental process would involve collecting the carbon dioxide from large emitters such as power stations and heavy industry and then transporting it to selected sites and injecting it underground or into the ocean.

Current cost estimates for this process range from 15 to 75 dollars per tonne of CO2.

However such carbon storage would not be a "panacea" to other measures to combat global warming such as improving energy efficiency and increasing the share of energy production by renewable and nuclear sources, the report said.

This point was echoed by a separate report by a French government energy agency (ADEM), which said some of the world's major CO2 emitters such as China and India do not have appropriate underground sites for carbon storage or the sites are too far away from the sources of emissions to make the process economic.

The UN report was commissioned in 2003 by the world scientific authority on global warming, the UN-mandated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

It will be presented to governments at the IPCC meeting in Montreal on September 22 to 28 to discuss the future of the Kyoto protocol, the international legal agreement under which industrialised countries have agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent from their 1990 levels by

The IPCC has warned that storing CO2 in the oceans could change the local environment and endanger marine life.

The Kyoto protocol came into force in February after it was ratified by Russia. The United States and Australia have refused to ratify the treaty saying it is against their economic interests.

Carbon dioxide emissions are produced from the burning of coal, oil and gas, mainly in power stations and motor vehicles. These and other so-called greenhouse gas emissions have collected in the atmosphere, raising global average temperatures and sea levels, according to the IPCC.

They threaten to melt the polar ice caps and increase the number and intensity of droughts, floods and storms.

CLIMATE SCIENCE

Earth's Wobble Burps

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Sep 19, 2005
Open University researchers have uncovered startling new evidence about an extreme period of a sudden, fatal dose of global warming some 180 million years ago during the time of the dinosaurs. The scientists' findings could provide vital clues about climate change happening today and in the future.

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