Climate Change and CO2
Without deep cuts in CO₂emissions, climate change cannot be stopped.
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Atmospheric concentrations of CO₂are higher now than at any time in the last 650,000 years, with much of the increase in CO₂level coming in the last decade.
Surface temperatures in 2010 tied 2005 as the highest on record. The past decade from 2001 to 2010 was the warmest recorded. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency ranking of the 15 hottest years globally shows they all occurred in the last 15 years since 1995.
As a consequence of warming, the Earth’s climate is changing. Arctic sea ice is retreating, ice sheets and glaciers are melting, and the global sea level has risen about 12 - 22 centimeters (4.8 - 8.8 inches) in the last century (IPCC 2007). Oceans are acidifying, threatening marine life.
The retreat of Pedersen Glacier, Alaska. Left: summer 1917. Right: summer 2005.1917 photo captured by Louis H. Pedersen; 2005 photo taken by Bruce F. Molnia. Credit: The Glacier Photograph Collection, National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology
Carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas responsible for some of these changes. Nine out of every ten tons of carbon released into the atmosphere comes from burning fossil fuels. Between 2007-2035, the US Energy Information projects that the amount of fossil fuel emitted will increase by 50%, with most of the increase occurring in developing nations.
With the projected growth, by 2035 carbon releases from fossil fuel will reach 11.5 billion tons a year of carbon, nearly twice as much as the ocean and biosphere can absorb. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will keep global temperatures elevated for hundreds, and even thousands, of years.
World energy consumption outlook.
These facts emphasize need for widespread deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technologies. Without widespread use of CCS technology, the worst aspects of climate change like global are imminent. Even with massive increases in low-carbon technologies, such renewables and nuclear technology, fossil fuel growth will be staggering. Up to 90% of the carbon emissions from power plant and other large industrial sources can be captured and isolated from the atmosphere using CCS.
CATF is working to:
- Advance low-carbon technologies through global business partnerships and policy
- Promote technology innovation that reduces CCS costs
- Develop incentives and mandates to promote CCS
- Support projects that lower the carbon emissions of power plants