scholarly journals The Oxymoron of Carbon Dioxide Removal: Escaping Carbon Lock-In and yet Perpetuating the Fossil Status Quo?

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinichiro Asayama
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Removal ◽  
Fuel Use ◽  
Apparent Paradox ◽  
Crucial Difference ◽  
Lock In

There appears to be a paradox in the debate over carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. On the one hand, CDR is recognised as a crucial technical option to offset residual carbon emissions from fossil fuel use, so that it can help a transition to the net-zero energy system. But on the other hand, a serious concern is raised about CDR as a way to circumvent necessary emissions reduction, hence perpetuating the status quo of fossil fuel use. This apparent paradox of CDR, however, has less to do with technology itself but more with the difficulty to move away from carbon lock-in—the deeply entrenched fossil-fuel-based energy system. The challenge of decarbonisation is indeed about eroding the deep lock-ins that perpetuate the production and consumption of fossil fuels. To understand the role of CDR in overcoming carbon lock-in, looking back the past debate on carbon capture and storage (CCS) is instructive. Although both CCS and CDR are criticised for keeping the fossil status quo, there is a crucial difference between them. Unlike CCS, CDR can possibly avoid the risk of reinforced lock-in, given its physical decoupling from fossil fuel use. And yet CDR has the risk of undue substitution that continues unjustly fossil carbon emissions. A change of the framing question is thus needed to puzzle out the paradox of CDR. To rightly place CDR in the challenge of rapid decarbonisation, we should ask more how CDR technologies can be used in alignment with a managed decline to fossil fuel production.

The European Commission's proposed Directive on the geological storage of carbon dioxide

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihai Tomescu ◽  
Scott Brockett ◽  
Martina Doppelhammer
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Energy System ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Geological Storage ◽  
Combat Climate Change ◽  
And Storage ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Energy Package

AbstractThe 2007 Spring European Council called for the European Union (EU) to be at the forefront of efforts to combat climate change and endorsed ambitious targets aimed at setting the European energy system on a sustainable path. To ensure that these targets are met, the European Commission put forward a set of proposed policy instruments, the Climate and Energy Package, in January 2008. A key element of the adopted Package is the proposed Directive on the geological storage of carbon dioxide, a technology which can help tackle emissions from energy generation from fossil fuel sources which will otherwise compromise EU climate objectives. This paper lays out policy options to incentivise the deployment of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) in the EU and presents the proposed Directive.

Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel use, 1751-1950

Tellus B ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. ANDRES ◽  
D. J. FIELDING ◽  
G. MARLAND ◽  
T. A. BODEN ◽  
N. KUMAR ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Fuel Use

Large-Scale Carbon Dioxide Removal: The Problem of Phasedown

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 70-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward A. Parson ◽  
Holly J. Buck
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Removal ◽  
Financial Flows ◽  
Cost Structures ◽  
Business Environments ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Lock In ◽  
Procurement Contracts

Most scenarios that achieve present climate targets of limiting global heating to 1.5°–2.0°C rely on large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to drive net emissions negative after mid-century. Scenarios that overshoot and return to a future temperature target, or that aim to restore some prior climate, require CDR to be rapidly deployed, operated for a century or so, then greatly reduced or phased out. This need for future phasedown presents challenges to near-term policies that have been underexamined. A CDR enterprise of climate-relevant scale will require financial flows of billions to trillions of dollars per year. The enterprise and supporting policies will create risks of lock-in via mobilized actors whose interests favor continuance as well as other mechanisms. The future phasedown need implies suggestive guidance for near-term decisions about removal methods and design of associated policy and business environments. First, variation among methods’ scale constraints and cost structures suggests a rough ordering of methods by severity of future phasedown challenges. Second, of the three potential means to motivate removals—profitable products incorporating removed carbon, extended emissions-pricing policies, or public procurement contracts—public procurement appears to present the fewest roadblocks to future phasedown.

The Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Fossil-Fuel Use in North America

2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (12) ◽  
pp. 2528-2542 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Gregg ◽  
L. M. Losey ◽  
R. J. Andres ◽  
T. J. Blasing ◽  
G. Marland
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
North America ◽  
Carbon Cycle ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
The United States ◽  
Temporal And Spatial Distribution ◽  
Temporal And Spatial

Abstract Refinements in the spatial and temporal resolution of North American fossil-fuel carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions provide additional information about anthropogenic aspects of the carbon cycle. In North America, the seasonal and spatial patterns are a distinctive component to characterizing anthropogenic carbon emissions. The pattern of fossil-fuel-based CO2 emissions on a monthly scale has greater temporal and spatial variability than the flux aggregated to the national annual level. For some areas, monthly emissions can vary by as much as 85% for some fuels when compared with monthly estimates based on a uniform temporal and spatial distribution. The United States accounts for the majority of North American fossil carbon emissions, and the amplitude of the seasonal flux in emissions in the United States is greater than the total mean monthly emissions in both Canada and Mexico. Nevertheless, Canada and Mexico have distinctive seasonal patterns as well. For the continent, emissions were aggregated on a 5° × 10° latitude–longitude grid. The monthly pattern of emissions varies on both a north–south and east–west gradient and evolves through the time period analyzed (1990–2007). For many areas in North America, the magnitude of the month-to-month variation is larger than the total annual emissions from land use change, making the characterization of emissions patterns essential to understanding humanity’s influence on the carbon cycle.

scholarly journals Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel use, 1751–1950

Tellus B ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Andres ◽  
D. J. Fielding ◽  
G. Marland ◽  
T. A. Boden ◽  
N. Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Fuel Use

scholarly journals Aspects regarding the reduction of fugitive methane emissions from the valves

2021 ◽  
Vol 343 ◽  
pp. 09010
Author(s):  
Ioana Petre ◽  
Monica Emanuela Stoica
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Testing Procedures

Methane is the second strongest greenhouse gas contributing to climate change after carbon dioxide. Reducing methane emissions contributes to both slowing climate change and improving air quality. In order to reduce methane emissions from the energy sector, the European Commission has proposed the obligation to improve leak detection and disposal in fossil fuel infrastructure, as well as any other infrastructure that produces, transports or uses fossil fuels. Compressors and compressor stations are such a component of the energy system. The paper presents the testing procedures of the valves in the gas transmission pipes for the evaluation of external leaks and the proposed corrective actions to minimize them.

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