The Essential Role of the Clean Energy - Global Energy Governance and our Earth Planet

Iran Gas Institute, IGI

Mansour Daftarian, Chairman and President, IGI 

September 12, 2018

The global temperature has, during the last four decades, and will continue to rise at an accelerated rate, mainly due excessive burning of coal mainly from early 1980s for global power generations, and in particular due to enormous methane emissions from the shale oil and gas productions.

The Global Warming is real and the consequences on the eco-systems of our planet are disastrous, and irreversible.

Our survey shows that the impact of the emissions of the methane from the permafrost and in particular from the shale oil and gas production spots will seriously worsen the situation.

Fundamental reforms in the global energy governance mainly to propel switching to clean energy are needed to avoid further dangerous changes to the ecosystems of our planet.

This aim can be achieved by constitutional and global agreements and co- operations for the required changes in the world energy policies to limit global temperature rise to safe levels.

Immediate, sustained and substantial actions that will change global energy mix and consumption patterns are essential.

As a main part of our proposal, we are urging the lawmakers and the world main energy players to help propel a transition from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas as a way to curb greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

The degree and timing of the response is critical and takes an added level of urgency with increased global energy demand.

Energy conservation together with improvement in the global energy mix is the essence of the intended global energy governance and we have concluded that the time is now for a constitutional moment in world energy policies.

The value of energy efficiency in mitigating the problem is considerable and requires specific innovations, new technologies, policy recommendations and global co- operations.

We intend to review the innovations and technologies that can be employed for high energy efficiencies in the buildings and transportation and to discuss the integration of clean energy, such as combined geothermal, sun energy and gas in the future heating system to reach efficiencies of around 170%.

The string of recent extreme weather events around the globe, including deadly typhoons, devastating floods and severe droughts, shows that urgent action on emission cuts is the need of the hour.

During the last four decades, almost four million people have been killed and trillions of dollars have been lost in natural disasters worldwide. As global warming threatens to increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, the prospect of even bigger disaster-related losses alone would make a case for more disaster- proofing investment.

Whilst replacing coal-fired power plant to natural gas-base generators is the most effective and cheapest way to slash carbon dioxide emissions, in the absence of binding international agreements to reduce the emissions of the greenhouse gases, the world coal consumption may increase as high as 50% by 2035.

MAIN TOPICS:

• Our studies in the Iranian Gas Institute, (IGI) show that the undeniable impacts of the Global Warming on our planet ecosystems and the lives of our children and the future generations are catastrophic and irreversible and therefore we intend to admonish the major world energy players to take serious considerations on our proposed revised global energy governance.
• From 1800 to 1950, the worldwide human population released relatively small amount namely, 300 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over relatively long time and accordingly the effect of carbon dioxide concentration was not very pronounced.
• During 1950-1980 the fossil fuels consumption was sharply increased and 390 billion tons of carbon dioxide, more than last 150 years, was emitted to the atmosphere.
• During 1980 - 2009, we have put out more carbon dioxide than ever before;an unprecedented 725 billion tons over the timespan. Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels have increased by 49 per cent in the last two decades.
• Consequently, the earth's climate has been warming due to carbon dioxide and other human-produced gases hindering the planet's reflection of the sun's heat back into space. On this basis the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC) concludes that anthropogenic greenhouse gases are responsible for observed temperature increase since the middle of the twentieth century.
• Global warming is responsible for glacial receding, rise of sea levels, changes in amount and pattern of precipitation, expansion of subtropical deserts and other big changes in the ecosystems of the earth.
• US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reportedly sent a proposal to the White House on March 20, 2009 determining that global warming is a threat to the public health and welfare. This finding will officially end the era of denial in US on global warming.
• Between 1979 and 2012, we have a decline of 13 per cent per decade in the sea ice, accelerating from six per cent between 1979 and 2000.
• “All nations will suffer the effects of a warmer world, but it is the world’s poorest countries that will be hit hardest by food shortages, rising sea levels, cyclones and drought”, the World Bank said in a report on climate change.
• The regions around the world threatened by and impacted by major food shortages as a result of droughts, floods, and other factors caused by global warming.
• Months before Hurricane Sandy hurled the Atlantic Ocean into houses and cities along the US East Coast, another record-breaking cyclone battered North America, helping push Arctic sea ice to a record low.
• Arctic sea ice has been declining during last three decades, reaching a record low in September 2007 and hitting that record again in 2012.
• The extreme weather includes the drought and heat waves that struck different parts of the globe as a result of glacial receding;the ocean level is steadily increasing, threatening coastal areas.
• The other concerning consequence of the ice melting, is the release of large amounts of methane (a greenhouse gas) trapped in the permafrost under Greenland's ice cap. The permafrost contains the remains of the region's organic plant and animal life, trapped and covered by ice sheets in the last Ice Age. This in fact will accelerate the rate and the consequences of the current global warming.
• During the last great climate-change event, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, some 55 million years ago, the Earth heated up about 6°C over 20,000 years and then took 200 000 years to return to near pre-perturbed conditions. The planet underwent significant changes during this period;ocean acidification accompanied mass extinctions on land and in the sea. The sedimentary rocks that formed before and after this event are so different that they were divided into separate geological epochs long before scientists discovered what had caused the split.  For a great many species, adaptation was simply not possible, even over many thousands of generations. Business-as-usual scenarios using current emission trajectories suggest that a similar degree of climate
• change is likely, but over less than 1/100th the amount of time.
• The primary source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world is coal fueled low efficient power plants. Coal currently supplies around 30% of primary energy and 41% of global electricity generation.
• Coal is primarily used as a solid fuel to produce electricity and heat through combustion.
• Nearly 38 percent of global electricity is being generated by Coal-fired power plants which are more than 30 years old with efficiencies below 29% which means that we are highly over consuming coal which is considered to be the prime cause of our disastrous global warming. 
• Even before burning the coal in the low efficient power plants, substantial amounts of methane are emitted to the atmosphere and amounts of methane emissions during coal production continue to increase as we go to deeper sections of the coal mines with higher pressures.  The global warming potential, (GWP) of methane is around 72 times higher than the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. During power generation the coal fueled plants emit more than three times nitrogen oxides than high efficient gas fueled power generations. The global warming potential of nitrogen oxides is 320 times higher than the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
• Unlike the other fossil fuels, the solid coal cannot be refined for the removal of the impurities and therefore the coal fueled power plants which are generally believed to be the major cause of the global warming ;are also responsible for shortening the lives and for the generation of substantial amounts of waste products, including fly ash, bottom ash,  and  flue-gas  desulfurization  sludge,  that  contain,  mercury,  uranium,  thorium, arsenic, and other metals, as well as acid rain from high sulfur coal, interference with groundwater and water table levels due to mining and contamination of land and waterways and destruction of homes from  fly ash slurry spills.
• Coal is a sedimentary rock formed primarily from accumulated plant matter, and it includes many inorganic minerals and elements which were deposited along with organic material during its formation. As the rest of the Earth's crust, coal also contains low levels of uranium, thorium, and other naturally occurring radioactive isotopes whose release into the environment leads to radioactive contamination. While these substances are present as very small trace impurities, enough coal is burned that significant amounts of these substances are released. A 1,000 MW coal-burning power plant could have an uncontrolled release of as much as 5.2 metric tons per year of uranium 235 and
• 12.8 metric tons per year of thorium. In comparison, a 1,000 MW nuclear plant will generate about 30 short tons of high-level radioactive solid packed waste per year.  Coal ash is also responsible for water and air contamination. Coal-fired power plants also emit mercury, selenium, and arsenic, which are harmful to human health and the environment.

• We will also address in our presentation the value of energy efficiency in mitigating the environmental impacts which is enormous and requires specific energy technologies and policy recommendations. The governments through comprehensive energy legislation can be compelled to embark on a course of market intervention to provide incentives for and support research programs for improving energy efficiency, improving the economy of renewable energies and carbon and methane capture and sequestration technologies with provisions for dates or certain levels of deployment, to be monitored by the parliaments.
• Environmental concerns call for all nations, to set minimum efficiency standards, for all appliances each year to ensure that latest technologically feasible and economically justified standards are employed for energy conservation purposes.
• The parliaments through comprehensive legislations and definitions of policy choices can play a vital role in binding the governments to plan to reduce carbon emissions through promoting energy conservation at a consumer, business and community level, and to guarantee the loans for energy conservation projects.
• Natural gas will play an important role as a transitional fuel. In many markets where natural gas replaces coal use, there are great environmental as well as economic benefits. It can also provide the necessary flexibility that enables a higher share of variable generation such as wind and solar. 
• Earth’s vast deposits of natural gas hydrates hold the promise of meeting the world’s natural gas needs far into the 21st century. Worldwide, the energy potential of methane hydrates is staggering.  The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that global gas hydrate formations contain more organic carbon than the all of the coal, oil and other forms of natural gas combined. We need to concentrate on technology innovations to produce natural gas from hydrates with reasonable prices.
• Catastrophes like droughts or strong rains reflect our dependence on the water cycle and climate system.
• "Climate change”and the associated change of water availability are facts and will require partly significant adaptation”, California Governor, Jerry Brown has declared on January 17, 2014, an official drought emergency,
• As surrounding nations use up the inflow water, many salty lakes are dropping fast.
• Global warming is considered to be responsible for such ominous news.
• Reduced water supply forecast affects hydropower outlook.
• Living with long-term drought could become the "new reality"for most parts of our planet.
• Since the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration started collecting data in 1880, 2013 was the fourth-warmest year.
• Excessively hot summers, were non-existent before 1980.  In recent years, super-hot summers have struck as much as 20 percent of the Northern Hemisphere.
• Last year's global temperatures were among the highest ever recorded since the late 19th century, and the trend is likely to continue,
• On January 14, 2014, the Board of top scientists implored world leaders to take immediate action to combat climate change as it announced that the minute hand of the Bulletin's iconic Doomsday Clock will remain at five minutes to midnight because "the risk of civilization-threatening technological catastrophe remains high."
   
• A massive iceberg broke off of Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier on Monday July 8, 2014, and is now floating freely in the Amundsen Sea, according to a team of German scientists.
• The recent research posted on March 26, 2014 reports that Six massive glaciers in West Antarctica are moving faster than they did 40 years ago, causing more ice to discharge into the ocean and global sea level to rise.
• Coastal cities like such as New York City must draw up comprehensive plans for addressing climate change-driven storms, droughts, heat waves and other weather events that could threaten their infrastructure.
• US is the world capital of tornadoes. These ingredients are present elsewhere, such as South America, southeastern China, Bangladesh, and on the Tibetan Plateau, notes Paul Murkowski, an associate professor of meteorology at Pennsylvania State University in State College, "But no place do these conditions occur on as vast a scale as the Great Plains of the United States,"he says.
• Research into Earth's paleoclimate history by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies director James E. Hansen suggests the potential for rapid climate changes this century, including multiple meters of sea level rise, if global warming is not abated.
• The Arctic ice cover melted down to 5.10 million square kilometers in 2012.  Arctic glaciers retreated at record levels in 2012, while summer snow melted in the region much more rapidly than it has in the past, according to a new report by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).  In 2012, Greenland saw the warmest summer in 170 years. Melting of the Greenland ice sheet also beat previous records.  Sea water rise due to such drastic glacial receding is alarming to coastal cities in the world.
• A new study contrasting ocean temperature readings of the 1870s with temperatures of the modern seas reveals an upward trend of global ocean warming spanning at least 100 years.
• Warm ocean currents are the dominant cause of recent ice loss from Antarctica, new research shows. New techniques have been used to differentiate, for the first time, between the two known causes of melting ice shelves - warm ocean currents attacking the underside, and warm air melting from above. This finding brings scientists a step closer to providing reliable projections of future sea-level rise.
• Greenland saw the warmest summer, said Jason E. Box, of the Byrd Polar Research Center. And September sea-ice extent —the area of water with at least 15 percent sea ice —throughout the Arctic is the lowest on record (which dates to 1979),beating the previous record set in just 2007.  Melting of the Greenland ice sheet also beat previous records set in 2010, with almost the entire sheet melting by mid-July, 2012. Box said "We know that melting ice in Greenland can contribute to sea-level rise around the world, and many of the biological changes we are seeing around the world affect systems elsewhere, for instance rising sea levels may have contributed to record surge heights along the U.S. coastline during Hurricane Sandy.”
• Warm ocean currents are the dominant cause of recent ice loss from Antarctica, new research shows. New techniques have been used to differentiate, for the first time, between the two known causes of melting ice shelves - warm ocean currents attacking the underside, and warm air melting from above. This finding brings scientists a step closer to providing reliable projections of future sea-level rise
• A shocking photo taken in July 2013 shows that the melting polar ice cap created a sizable lake on top of the world.
• As global warming is responsible for, rain becomes less frequent in some areas, and soil and rocks dry up, scientists think much of the arsenic that should be leaching into the groundwater will instead be blown into the air.
• Our planet is getting dustier. A recent study from the University of Colorado found that dust depositions have dramatically increased in the past 20 years, due to increased aridity, wind transport and human activities.
• The climate changes caused by global warming are affecting the intensity of storms.
• Sand and dust storms are being intensified by global warming. Dust storms all over the world have begun to intensify from global warming.
• Many storm systems are beginning to intensify from global warming. Sand and dust storms are among those. Many areas all over the globe are currently experiencing intensity in the dust storms. Areas that usually do not experience these storms are now being affected by them. The warmer temperatures are causing these storms to gain severity.
• These sand and dust storms have affected numerous areas of the planet and are causing serious problems.  The thick blankets of dirt that consumes the air, not only cause health problems for people, but can ruin crops as well.

• These dust storms are affecting numerous nations, including Africa, Middle East, China and India. The dust that does not settle back over the region it originated from can travel great distances to neighboring nations. This then cause health risks to the people of those nations. Global warming is affecting the intensity of storms all over the world. Sand and dust storms are only one form of weather being affected by the global warming.

• How the global warming is spreading toxic dust will be reviewed in our presentation as a case study we will refer to a town in the western United States that scientists say could become a major source of airborne arsenic poisoning due to global warming and breakneck human expansion.

• A new study has found that more than two million deaths occur worldwide each year as a direct result of human-caused outdoor air pollution. While it has been suggested that the global warming will accelerate this effect. The proposed emphasis in switching coal fueled, power generations to clean and more efficient natural gas and also to concentrate on energy efficiency, will moderate this issue.

• Rice University: Researchers: “Moving from coal to natural gas cheapest way to cut carbon. Replacing coal-fired power plants with natural gas-based generators is the cheapest, most effective way for the U.S. to slash carbon dioxide emissions”, a pair of Rice University professors argue in a new paper.

• Our study shows that under current global energy governance coal will remain the major source of power generation through 2040,

• The thermosphere is the higher layer of atmosphere, begins at an altitude of 90 km.

• According to new study by US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) scientists, the highest layer of the earth's atmosphere are cooling and contracting. Thermosphere has contracted as one of the alarming consequences of the global warming and its average density has already decreased by 10 % during last 35 years.

• Combined heat and power (CHP),also known as cogeneration, is the use of a power stations, to provide both electric power and process heat or district heating. While rejecting heat at a higher than normal temperature to enable building heating lowers overall plant electric power efficiency, the extra fuel burnt is more than offset by the reduction in fossil fuel that would otherwise be used for heating buildings. Calculations show that CHP is the cheapest method of carbon emissions reductions.

• U.S. EPA have examined a Harvard University study that said emissions of methane were as much as 50 percent higher than the agency had previously estimated and possibly incorporate the research into future work. Part of the discrepancy is due to the oil and gas sector, which is likely emitting about five times more methane in Texas and Oklahoma than is currently assumed, according to the  study. 

• New research released on September 06, 2013, links human-caused climate change to six of 12 extreme weather events from 2012, including summer heat waves in the United States and storm surges from Super storm Sandy.

• Global demand for energy shows no signs of slowing;carbon dioxide emissions keep surging to new records;and political uprisings, natural disasters and volatile energy markets put the security of energy supplies to the test.

• More than ever, the need for a fundamental shift to a cleaner and more efficient and reliable energy system is clear.

• In March, 2012, some 32 social scientists and researchers from around the world, including a Senior Sustainability Scholar at Arizona State University, have concluded that fundamental  reforms  of  global  environmental  governance  are  needed  to  avoid dangerous changes in the Earth system. The scientists argued in the March 16 edition of the journal Science that the time is now for a "constitutional moment"in world politics.

• We in IGI, recommend incentives for reducing tropical deforestation which accounts for about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions each year.

   The economy of the clean energy has drastically improved due to recent innovation. 

  In view of the above we strongly recommend all ECO member countries to plan to utilize their vast potentials to produce and use clean energy.