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Global climate change--The technology challenge: China
Citation:
PRINCIOTTA, F. Global climate change--The technology challenge: China. Presented at 2011 Low Carbon Economy Summit, , Dalian, CHINA, October 19, 2011.
Impact/Purpose:
proposal for conference paper
Description:
Population growth and developmental pressures, spawned by an increasing demand for resource intensive goods, foods and services, are altering the planet in ways that threaten the long-term well-being of humans and other species. Global climate change and its associated impacts is one of the most significant consequences of the unsustainable practices/technologies utilized by humanity to meet these demands. The presentation provides a succinct integration [MD1]of the projected warming the earth is likely to experience in the decades ahead, the emission reductions that may be needed to constrain this warming, and the technologies needed to help achieve such emission reductions. Transparent modeling tools and the most recent literature are used to quantify the challenge posed by climate change and potential technological remedies. Forces driving CO2 emissions,[MD2] how different emission trajectories could affect warming this century, a sector-by-sector summary of mitigation options, and R&D priorities are discussed. It is concluded that it is too late to constrain warming below about 2 0C, the current annual 3% CO2 emission growth rate needs to transform rapidly to an annual decrease rate of from 2 to 3% for decades. Further, current energy generation and end use technologies are only capable of achieving less than half of the emission reductions needed to achieve these CO2 decreases.. New technologies will have to be developed and deployed at a rapid rate, especially for the key power generation and transportation sectors. Current energy technology research, development, demonstration, and deployment programs will need to be expanded to meet this significant challenge.