carbon emissions
Emissions From Electric Buses
Municipalities and transit agencies are gradually replacing conventional diesel buses with cleaner alternatives such as natural-gas-powered, diesel-electric hybrid, or fully electric buses. The goal is to reduce the substantial carbon emissions associated with buses as well as reducing unhealthy air pollution. Diesel buses on average get less than 5 miles per gallon as they transport passengers around, so there is plenty of motivation to find more efficient ways to power them.
Greener Concrete
The battle to reduce carbon emissions is heavily focused on electricity generation, transportation, buildings, and agriculture, which collectively account for more than 75% of the total. However, there are other sources of carbon emissions that cannot be ignored. Among industrial activities, the production of cement is responsible for 7% of industrial energy use and is the second largest industrial emitter of carbon dioxide. Making cement accounts for about 7% of global emissions.
A New Catalyst For Splitting Water
Hydrogen is widely considered to be a desirable source of clean energy. It can be used in fuel cells to power electric motors in cars or can be burned directly in internal combustion engines. If it is compressed or converted to liquid, it can be efficiently stored and transported. Most of all, when it is used as an energy source, the only emission it produces is water.
Bursting The Carbon Bubble
One way or another, the fossil fuel industry seems to be destined to shrink away. A combination of technological advances and climate policies are going to drastically reduce the global demand for fossil fuels over the course of time. New research shows that the demise of the fossil fuel industry will have profound consequences.
Trouble With China And Climate Progress
With the United States backing away from the Paris climate agreement and with Europe taking a less active role in climate negotiations, China has become the bellwether on global climate change. Recent climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany were rather acrimonious as countries accused other countries of not doing their part or keeping their promises.
Climate Change And Biodiversity
According to a new study recently published in the journal Climatic Change, up to half of the plant and animal species in the world’s most naturally-rich areas could face local extinction by the turn of the century due to climate change. This projection, jeopardizing the biodiversity in places like the Amazon and the Galapagos, assumes carbon emissions continue to rise unchecked.
Natural Climate Solutions
The Paris Climate Agreement embodies a commitment to hold the increase in the global average temperature to less than 2 Celsius degrees above preindustrial levels. Most strategies to achieve this goal involve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from human activities such as burning fossil fuels as well as various land use activities. But there are also so-called Natural Climate Solutions, which relate to the storage of carbon and reduction in carbon emissions across global forests, wetlands, grasslands, and agricultural lands.
A Carbon Loophole
Many power plants in Europe and elsewhere are replacing coal with wood. For example, the Drax Power Station in Britain was its largest coal-burning plant and is now using wood pellets shipped from the southern U.S. in its boilers. According to the carbon accounting rules at the EU and elsewhere, the process is considered to be “carbon neutral.” But is it?
The idea is that new trees are being planted in the forests where the trees are cut to be burned in power plants. So, there is carbon neutrality. In principle.
European countries have embarked on a massive effort to switch to generating power from renewable energy. While there has indeed been major growth in wind and solar power in the 28 countries of the European Union, much of the new “green” power has come from burning wood in converted coal power stations.
A group of 200 scientists wrote to the EU last September insisting that bioenergy from forest biomass is not carbon neutral and that there must be tighter rules to protect forests and their carbon. Wood burning has become a loophole in controlling carbon emissions.
There are problems with the claims of carbon neutrality. There is no way to know whether enough new trees are actually being planted to replace those being burned. And then there is the time lag for tree replacement. Trees don’t grow overnight. There are also the carbon emissions associated with harvesting, processing and transporting wood.
There are most certainly ways in which burning biomass can be carbon neutral and can represent real progress over the use of fossil fuels. But caution must be taken to avoid exploiting loopholes in current climate rules that might actually result in increased carbon emissions.
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Carbon Loophole: Why Is Wood Burning Counted as Green Energy?
Photo, posted April 26, 2014, courtesy of Flickr.
‘A Carbon Loophole’ from Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.