RENEWABLE ENERGY & ENERGY EFFICIENCIES

If we want to be sociably responsible leaders, we need to pursue newly emerging industries such as energy efficiency improvements and building insulation, wind energy, community energy systems, and biofuels. We will without question, have to reduce our GHG emissions in the future. Putting more money into fossil fuel industries with high GHG emissions is like investing today in buggy horse whips used a century ago.

COMMON PROBLEMS - OVERLAPPING SOLUTIONS
PRIORITIZING SIX (6) MAJOR STRATEGIES TO REDUCE EMISSIONS

1. Use Less Energy: A. Reduce activities which use energy, such as working at home rather than commuting to work; and B. Practice energy efficiency (still carrying out the same activity in a more efficient manner, such as using a fuel efficient car).

2. Renewable Energy: Use environmentally friendly carbon-free, or carbon neutral sources of energy, such as hydro-electricity, wind, solar, and biomass energy.

3. Cleaner Fossil Fuels: Move from coal (which emits the most greenhouse gases per unit of energy produced), to oil (which is an intermediate fuel), to natural gas (which emits the least GHGs per unit of energy).

Emissions Reduction Strategies Mitigating Climate Change

4. CO2 Sinks: This involves removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere (or capturing it before it is released), and storing it so that it does not escape into the atmosphere. This helps to prevent the atmospheric concentration of CO2 from rising. As an example, by planting trees on land that was previously not forested, and allowing the trees to grow and remain /anding permanently, CO2 is removed from the atmosphere by the trees and stored in their trunks and roots (a “CO2 sink”). As well, if the amount of organic matter in farm soils is increased, the soils can serve as a CO2 sink. Geophysical sinks, such as depleted oil and gas wells, fractured coal beds, and deep saline aquifers also provide space to store captured CO2.

However, while agricultural and forestry sinks reduce atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, they do not reduce the emissions of air pollutants which cause acid rain and smog, which can only be reduced or eliminated by eradicating fossil fuel use.

5. Reduce Non-Energy Greenhouse Gases

Reduce non-Energy GHGs including: cement making; methane from waste landfills; leaking natural gas pipelines; ruminant animals (cows, sheep, horses); some chemical fertilizers; etc.  

6. Scrubbers: End-Of-Pipe Emissions Controls

Traditionally, air quality issues have been addressed one at a time, by trying to remove a particular pollutant (such as NOx, SOx, or PM) from the tailpipe or smoke stack, after the pollutant is created from fossil fuel burning, but before it is released into the atmosphere. Examples of these traditional control methods - often called “scrubbers” or “end-of-pipe” controls - include acid flue gas scrubbers at power plants, and catalytic converters on motor vehicles.

Note that scrubbers that are designed to reduce acid rain and smog do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, they can actually increase greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy efficiency.

The power plant would still have to address its NOx, PM, and CO2 emissions, as well as the Canadian Environmental Protection Agency (CEPA) toxins like mercury, lead, cadmium, and other substances.

Emission control equipment may be so expensive that it may “lock-in” the use of a high greenhouse gas emitting plant or process for several decades. For example, acid flue gas scrubbers greatly improve air quality, but because they are costly to install, it would be difficult to close a coal plant once the money has been spent on the scrubbers. For instance, for a 500 MW power plant, the plant would need to invest perhaps $150 million to install a scrubber for its SO2 emissions.

Instead of spending money on power plant scrubbers, simpler solutions such as the phased closure of the coal-fired plant, and investing in renewable energy may be the best long-term environmental and economic alternative. There is currently no effective and economically feasible scrubbing technology for greenhouse gases. Currently, the only environmentally and economically practical method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal fired power plants is reduce, and then eliminate coal-fired emissions via community energy efficiency measures and city-wide renewable energy projects. A better solution is not to create the pollutants in the first place.