http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/national-news/185469-un-orders-phaseout-of-fossil-fuels-by-2100
[Hmmm, that does not seem well aligned with Canada's plan to unleash the
bitumen carbon bomb in the next few decades.]
UN orders phaseout of ‘fossil fuels’ by 2100
Tuesday, 04 November 2014 17:43
Written by Chukwuma Muanya
• Report warns continued use will cause ‘ irreversible’ impacts globally
• Urges govts to cut carbon dioxide emissions further
IN its latest assessment of global warming which was published Monday,
the United Nations (UN) through its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) warned that the use of fossil fuels must be phased out by
the end of the century.
The IPCC’s Synthesis Report was published on Sunday in
Copenhagen, after a week of intense debate between scientists and
government officials.
The IPCC issued stark predictions that continued greenhouse gas
emissions would cause “severe, pervasive and irreversible” impacts
around the world. It urged governments to cut carbon dioxide emissions
by up to 70 per cent by 2050 and asked them to be less reliant on mining
for fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.
The authors said fossil fuels would need to be phased out
completely from electricity production by 2100 unless new technology
could safely bury carbon dioxide from power stations underground to
prevent it from being released into the atmosphere.
At the presentation of the IPCC Report, the UN Secretary General, Ban
Ki-Moon, said he hoped it would help world leaders decide how to
tackle climate change when they meet in Peru for a UN climate summit
next month.
He said: “Science has spoken. There is no ambiguity in the
message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side.
“There is a myth that climate action will cost heavily. But
inaction will cost much more.”
According to Wikipedia, fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural
processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The
age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically
millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years. Fossil fuels
contain high percentages of carbon and include coal, petroleum, and
natural gas.
A greenhouse gas (sometimes abbreviated GHG) is a gas in an
atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared
range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect.
The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere are water vapor,
carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.
In Nigeria, oil prices have been in a free fall since June after
peaking at $115 per barrel. However, the price has steadily and
consistently declined over the last four months to about $86 per barrel
on Friday.
It is feared that there is very high likelihood of the prices
plummeting further to about $80 per barrel before enjoying some
semblance of stability.
Indeed, the sudden drop in crude oil prices has attracted mixed
feelings. While many Western countries have been rejoicing over the
development, which has resulted in lower pump price of fuel for their
citizens, the reverse is the case in countries that depend almost
exclusively on oil revenues as they have been experiencing a reduction
in earnings.
In Nigeria, the plummeting price of oil has exacerbated the
dwindling revenues occasioned by the rising theft of the product the
country is battling with. This has resulted in a decline in what accrues
to all the tiers of governments from the Federation Account and already
some states are finding it difficult to pay salaries.
Meanwhile, critics warn that growing reliance upon renewable
energy to replace fossil fuels would increase the risk of outages in
Nigeria. They also said that consumers would see their energy bills
soaring to pay for the new technologies outlined in the report.
The report comes at a time when Nigeria is already facing a
growing risk of electricity blackouts as the country attempts to switch
to renewable forms of energy.
Also, the BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy published in
mid-2013 says that the world has in reserves 861 billion tonnes of coal,
187 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, and 1669 billion barrels of
crude oil. These numbers seem to be huge at a glance, but taking into
account today’s level of extraction proves reserves of coal will be
exhausted in 109 years. The last cubic meter of natural gas will be
extracted in 2068. And by 2065 there will be no reserves of crude oil.
Chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, warned that the cost of
delaying action to tackle climate change would be ‘proportionally higher’.
Pachauri said: “The world needs a combination of adaptation and
mitigation. We will not be able to adapt to the impacts of climate
change if we don’t do anything to tackle
the root of the problem. The impacts will exceed our capacity to cope
with them.
“In the absence of carbon capture and storage then power generation
from fossil fuels would need to be phased out by the end of this century
if we want to limit temperature increases to two degree Celsius (2C) .”
The IPCC report says that fossil fuels could continue to be used
beyond 2100 in conjunction with carbon capture and storage, which traps
and buries carbon dioxide gas in power station chimneys.
However, the technology is yet to be tested on a large scale and
is seen as being an expensive solution.
Dr. Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Forum
think tank set up by former chancellor Lord Lawson, said phasing out of
fossil fuels could have a major impact on the British and European economy.
He said: “Europe is already hurting from green policies as they
are having a detrimental impact on industry and energy costs.
“There is nothing to replace the reliance on cheap fossil fuels in
many parts of the world, which is why there is never going to be a
realistic global agreement on cutting carbon dioxide emissions.”
Until now, the use of fossil fuels has continued to raise serious
environmental concerns. The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3
billion tonnes (21.3 gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, but
it is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of
that amount, so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of
atmospheric carbon dioxide per year (one tonne of atmospheric carbon is
equivalent to 44/12 or 3.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide).
Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that enhance
radiative forcing and contributes to global warming, causing the average
surface temperature of the Earth to rise in response, which the vast
majority of climate scientists agree will cause major adverse effects.
A global movement towards the generation of renewable energy is
therefore under way to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
An economist at the University of Sussex, Prof. Richard Tol, who
was one of the contributors to the IPCC, said the report was ‘alarmist’.
Earlier this year he withdrew his name from the final draft of
the report in protest at what he believes is biased selection of the
authors and evidence presented.
He said: “It is a long way until 2100 but carbon capture storage
at a scale large enough to make a serious dent in emissions strikes me
as optimistic. It would require too many pipelines, too much storage.”
The new IPCC Synthesis Report is intended as a summary of three
previous reports compiled over a five-year period to assess the latest
evidence on climate change and its impacts.
It is expected to act as a guide for government officials and policy
makers as they begin intense negotiations to set new limits on carbon
emissions at a UN summit in Paris next year.
The report suggests a number of options that could help the world
adapt and tackle climate change, including saying that many people will
have to change their diets and grow new types of food.
It warns that methane emissions from livestock and greenhouse gas
emissions from fertiliser contribute considerably to global warming.
Although it does not go into detail about what changes to diet
should be, climate change experts have previously suggested eating
vegetarian food, growing crops that can cope with more extreme weather
and alternative sources of protein including insects.
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