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Limits of Carbon Capture and Storage in combating climate change

Coal is the worst climate offender Enlarge Image

Stop climate change

The world's leaders meet at the end of 2009 in Copenhagen to determine the fate of the climate. They could set us on the path to a deep emissions cuts or they could lock the planet into catastrophic, irreversible climate change.

Take action

With the world on the brink of runaway climate change, millions are anxious about the effects that a warmer globe will have on our everyday lives. Wanting to learn, act and agitate is a perfectly valid response.

Temperature change 1765-2100: Graph excerpted from the IPCC's Third Assessment Report showing past and predicted changes to global temperature. Enlarge Image

Science

Climate change is a reality. Today, our world is hotter than it has been in two thousand years. By the end of the century, if current trends continue, the global temperature will likely climb higher than at any time in the past two million years. While the end of the 20th century may not necessarily be the warmest time in Earth's history, what is unique is that the warmth is global and cannot be explained by the natural mechanisms that explain previous warm periods. There is a broad scientific consensus that humanity is in large part responsible for this change, and that choices we make today will decide the climate of the future.

Scientific consensus

There is, in fact, a broad and overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, is caused in large part by human activities (such as burning fossil fuels), and if left un-checked will likely have disastrous consequences.

The specks on ice are explorers Lonnie Dupre and Eric Larsen, setting off on the first ever unsupported summer crossing of the Arctic Ocean in order to draw attention to global warming. Enlarge Image

Climate research

It was realised by the mid-18th century that some gases in the Earth's atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, trap heat and keep the Earth warm. At the start of the 20th century, a Swedish scientist named Svante Arrhenius put forward the idea that human emissions of carbon dioxide would eventually raise temperatures. He didn't see this as a particularly bad thing, and most scientists at the time were sceptical that humans could burn fossil fuels fast enough to have a noticeable impact at all.

Illustration of the greenhouse effect. Enlarge Image

Greenhouse effect

The Earth's atmosphere is made up of a blanket of gases, which trap enough heat to sustain life. However, by burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests humans pump billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. We also add other gasses to the atmosphere in smaller quantities.

Carbon dioxide emissions and the carbon cycle. Enlarge Image

CO2 emissions

The primary human source of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is from the burning of fossil fuels for energy production and transport. Changes in land use and deforestation also contribute significantly. Trees, for example, are natural 'carbon sinks' - they absorb carbon dioxide while alive and when they are destroyed, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Once in the atmosphere, most of the carbon dioxide stays there for 50 to 200 years, and some of it stays there indefinitely.

A family living next to the sea in the village of Tenoraereke, stand with Greenpeace Climate Change campaigner on the South Pacific island of Kiribati, beside some collapsed coconut trees, fallen over due to sea erosion. Enlarge Image

Climate voices

The real meaning of climate change can not be fully grasped from scientific charts and equations alone; one needs to hear the stories of those who are living through it, grappling with its implications, and struggling to find ways to halt it. Part of what we do is to give a voice to these first hand witnesses of climate change. Here is what some of them have to say:

A clear indication that while the delegates inside the convention make new alliances and forge tenuous political partnerships, outside the UN buildings very real walls based on access to resouces continue to exist. Enlarge Image

Governments

There is a fundamental irony and injustice at the heart of the climate change problem. Today’s growing body of evidence indicates very clearly that the first and worst impacts of climate change are felt by the poor in the developing world. The responsibility for the problem, however, lies primarily with the rich industrialised nations, and increasingly the rapidly industrialising nations.

Greenpeace Czech Republic marks Kyoto coming into force with a large banner reading "Kyoto for the Earth" in the front of famous National Museum in the centre of Prague. The museum is a place marking historic and symbolic events in recent Czech history. Enlarge Image

Kyoto

On 16 February 2005, in the culmination of ten years of sometimes exhausting and often frustrating negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol became law. Thirty-five industrialised countries along with the European Union are now legally bound to reduce or limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

United Nations

The United Nations plays a key role in coordinating the international response to climate change. But it is no simple job getting cooperation and agreement from the 191 member states of the UN - all intent on pursuing their own self interests and policies - even when the evidence is clearly shows that failing to act would be disastrous for all.

Greenpeace activists paint two gigantic cracks on the 32 year old nuclear reactor dome at Borssele, Netherlands. The Dutch government wants to keep the plant, one of the world's oldest, open beyond 2013, despite inherent safety and security risks. Enlarge Image

Project work

Climate change is a priority issue for us here at Greenpeace. We realised years ago that it has the potential to wipe out most of the gains the environmental movement has made in other areas. Disruptions to ecosystems will likely harm everything from minke whales to coral reefs to polar bears. Whole forests will be lost, and hundreds of thousands of species will become extinct. Climate change will also bring devastation to people and communities, especially some of the world's poorest.

Greenpeace negotiators and members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development call for action on climate change at the Johannesburg Earth Summit. Enlarge Image

International negotiations

This page is intended primarily for policy makers, journalists and others who attend or report on international meetings about climate change. Hopefully though, it is also useful to anyone who wants better understanding of what goes on at these meetings, and what is at stake from their results.

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Hotline:
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For EU related:
Mark Breddy
+32 2 2741 903(p)
+32 496 15 6229(m)
mark.breddy@greenpeace.org

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