Monat: September 2017

Burns, Wil; Nicholson, Simon (2017): Bioenergy and carbon capture with storage (BECCS). The prospects and challenges of an emerging climate policy response

Burns, Wil; Nicholson, Simon (2017): Bioenergy and carbon capture with storage (BECCS). The prospects and challenges of an emerging climate policy response. In J Environ Stud Sci 15 (2), p.[nbsp]1360. DOI: 10.1007/s13412-017-0445-6.

„There is increasing impetus for large-scale deployment of carbon dioxide removal geoengineering approaches to help keep temperatures to below 2[nbsp]°C, as provided for under the Paris Agreement. The primary option that has been discussed to date is Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). While BECCS could sequester very large amounts of carbon dioxide, it also poses substantial socio-economic risks to society, as well as threats to biodiversity. This essay suggests that a human rights-based approach can help to protect the interests of those who might be adversely impacted by BECCS deployment.“

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Visioni, Daniele; et al. (2017): Sulfate geoengineering impact on methane transport and lifetime. Results from the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP)

Visioni, Daniele; Pitari, Giovanni; Aquila, Valentina; Tilmes, Simone; Cionni, Irene; Di Genova, Glauco; Mancini, Eva (2017): Sulfate geoengineering impact on methane transport and lifetime. Results from the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP). In Atmos. Chem. Phys 17 (18), pp.[nbsp]11209–11226. DOI: 10.5194/acp-17-11209-2017.

Sulfate geoengineering (SG), made by sustained injection of SO2 in the tropical lower stratosphere, may impact the CH4 abundance through several photochemical mechanisms affecting tropospheric OH and hence the methane lifetime. (a)[nbsp]The reflection of incoming solar radiation increases the planetary albedo and cools the surface, with a tropospheric H2O decrease. (b)[nbsp]The tropospheric UV budget is upset by the additional aerosol scattering and stratospheric ozone changes: the net effect is meridionally not uniform, with a net decrease in the tropics, thus producing less tropospheric O(1D). (c)[nbsp]The extratropical downwelling motion from the lower stratosphere tends to increase the sulfate aerosol surface area density available for heterogeneous chemical reactions in the mid-to-upper troposphere, thus reducing the amount of NOx and O3 production. (d)[nbsp]The tropical lower stratosphere is warmed by solar and planetary radiation absorption by the aerosols.

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et online: Global warming: Is it a myth now?

„The other options for dealing with global warming are either adaption or climate engineering. Climate engineering is a dangerous and largely theoretical science, but it does have at least a slight chance to somehow reverse some effects of global warming if the science is expanded.“

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Environmental Guru: Evoking equity as a rationale for solar geoengineering research? Scrutinizing emerging expert visions of equity

„A post summarizing a recent paper in International Environmental Agreements. – Solar geoengineering ideas remain largely confined to the imagination, with very little scientific research funded to date beyond indoor modeling studies. Explicit policy demand for this supply of science appears to be minimal, although this could certainly change. In this context, a small group of experts advocating for more research into solar geoengineering—what we term, following Stephen Hilgartner, “sociotechnical vanguards,”—are justifying a call for more research, sometimes on equity grounds.“

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