The technologies needed to beat 450 ppm

[RedEarth]

The IPCC wrote in 2007 in its Working Group III summary (p. 16):

The range of stabilization levels assessed can be achieved by deployment of a portfolio of technologies that are currently available and those that are expected to be commercialised in coming decades. This assumes that appropriate and effective incentives are in place for development, acquisition, deployment and diffusion of technologies and for addressing related barriers (high agreement, much evidence).

This range of levels includes reaching atmospheric concentrations of 445 to 490 ppm CO2-equivalent, or 400 to 450 ppm of CO2. The first sentence does beg the question, what exactly does “expected to be commercialized” mean — I’ll return to that in Part 2

So what exactly are these climate-saving technologies? You can read about every conceivable one in the full WGIII report, “Mitigation of Climate Change.” But the Summary lists the “Key mitigation technologies and practices” (pg 10) in several sectors divided into two groups — those that are “currently commercially available” and those “projected to be commercialized before 2030.” I will simply list them all here. In a later post, I’ll discuss which ones I believe could deliver the biggest reductions at lowest cost — my 14+ “wedges,” as it were — and the political process for achieving them.

It is worth seeing them all, I think, to understand exactly how we might stabilize below 450 ppm CO2 (and to understand why the recent Nature article and the “technological breakthrough” crowd is wrong). Also, one of the technologies is the closest thing we have to the “silver bullet” needed to save the climate, as I will blog on in a few days.

Energy supply now commercial: Improved supply and distribution efficiency; fuel switching from coal to gas; nuclear power; renewable heat and power (hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal and bioenergy); combined heat and power; early applications of Carbon
Capture and Storage (CCS, e.g. storage of removed CO2 from natural gas).

Energy supply projected to be commercial by 2030: CCS for gas, biomass and coal-fired electricity generating facilities; advanced nuclear power; advanced renewable energy, including tidal and waves energy, concentrating solar, and solar PV.

more.........

http://climateprogress.org/2008/04/08/the-technologies-needed-to-beat-450-ppm-part-1/