div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {
color:#06c;
}
Drastic cuts in carbon emissions may not be sufficient to avoid the worst
ravages of global warming and the world will need to suck carbon from the
atmosphere to avert permanent damage to the climate, according to a leading
world authority on climate science.
In an interview with The Times, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), proposed that new techniques should be
applied to help to mop up atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide that have
been pumped into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels.
“There are enough technologies in existence to allow for mitigation,” he said.
“At some point we will have to cross over and start sucking some of those
gases out of the atmosphere.”
Speaking days before the start of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, Dr
Pachauri, who collected the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the IPCC
with Al Gore, said that such a strategy needed to be pursued as a matter of
urgency.
The Indian scientist, 69, also said that the target adopted by the 192
governments that are due to attend the conference, of restricting average
global temperature rises to less than 2C (3.6F), may be insufficient to
prevent catastrophic warming impacts such as a rise in sea levels of between
0.5m and 1.4m (1.6ft and 4.6ft) and enough to devastate many coastal cities
around the world such as Shanghai, Calcutta and Dhaka. Instead, he said, a
1.5C rise was a safer target.
Dr Pachauri raised the prospect of so-called geo-engineering, whereby carbon
dioxide is actively stripped from the atmosphere. A range of techniques have
been proposed including seeding artificial clouds over oceans to reflect
sunlight back into space, sowing the oceans with iron ore to boost
plankton growth and using carbon capture and storage technology to fix
emissions from power stations.
About 27 billion tonnes of pure carbon dioxide are pumped into the atmosphere
every year — equivalent to 7.3 billion tonnes of pure carbon.
Total atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are now at 387 parts per
million, up from an historic average of 180 to 280 ppm. Even if radical cuts
were adopted by world governments in Copenhagen and adhered to, the lowest
level at which they could be expected to stabilise is 450 ppm, say
scientists. To prevent a further temperature rise of more than 2C, emissions
would need to be stabilised around that level.
Dr Pachauri, speaking to The Times on Saturday before travelling to
Paris to brief President Sarkozy, suggested that the fossil fuel lobby could
be behind a hacking incident last month that led to the publication of
thousands of leaked e-mails between climate scientists. He said that it was
entirely possible that “corporate interests” had had a hand in the leak.
Dr Pachauri, who was in London for a lecture at the Wellcome Trust organised
by the BBC World Service, demanded an immediate investigation into the
hacking of e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s climatic research
unit, which he branded an “illegal act”.
He said: “One needs firstly to find out personally who is responsible, who the
culprits are and what were their motives. And unless we do that it is likely
that similar things will happen in the future.”
A prominent climate change sceptic, Steve McIntyre, told The Times yesterday that he was “unaware of any evidence that the fossil fuel lobby
had anything to do with this and I doubt that they did”.
Dr Pachauri dismissed the suggestion that biased research had crept into the
IPCC’s most recent report on the science of climate change. A complex system
of checks and balances was in place to prevent bias being insinuated into
the panel’s work, he said.
The third way
Governments have focused their attention on mitigation — reducing their carbon
output — and more recently on transition — redeveloping existing assets to
ensure carbon control. According to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers,
there is a third way, geo-engineering; measures that do not just reduce
emissions, but take them out of the environment:
Artificial trees These 12m boxes, filled with absorbent materials, soak
up and store carbon. The devices, which could be placed by roads, would be
emptied regularly and the carbon buried. About 100,000 artificial trees
would require about 600 hectares of land, but the carbon that they remove
from the atmosphere would be equivalent to all the non-stationary and
dispersed emissions to the UK
Algae-coated buildings Strips of algae are fitted to the outside of
buildings in units called photobioreactors. Algae naturally absorbs C02
through photosynthesis. Periodically the algae are harvested and used for
biofuels that have an energy rating similar to coal. This solution requires
no extra land use
Reflective buildings Between 10 and 50 per cent of solar radiation can
be reflected back out of the atmosphere by painting buildings and road
surfaces in light colours
