Abstract
The debate about climate change still rages. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made assessments of future temperature changes and the reasons for the changes. In this chapter we refresh everyone’s memory about climate change and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a pricing mechanism. We introduce the concept of emissions intensity for electricity generating and look at the differences between the various energy sources already discussed in Chap. 2. We finish this chapter by discussing how the Power Makers will respond to a price on carbon emissions.
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Notes
- 1.
Greenhouse gas emissions are recorded by their carbon dioxide equivalent impact (CO2-e).
- 2.
These are life cycle emissions, which means that they cover emissions during power plant construction, fuel mining and transport, operation, decommissioning and waste disposal.
References
IPCC (2007) Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York
World Resources Institute Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT) (2011) http://cait.wri.org. Accessed 10 July 2011
IEA (2010) World energy outlook 2010. http://worldenergyoutlook.org/. Accessed 10 July 2011
Australian Government Treasury (2008) Australia’s low pollution future: chapter 5: mitigation scenarios—international results chart 5.22. http://treasury.gov.au/lowpollutionfuture/report/html/05_Chapter5.asp. Accessed 10 July 2011
WEC (2004) Comparison of energy systems life cycle assessment. http://worldenergy.org/documents/lca2.pdf. Accessed 10 July 2011
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag London
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Nicholson, M. (2012). The Carbon Challenge. In: The Power Makers' Challenge. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2813-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2813-7_6
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