New analysis reveals carbon capture at coal power plants is significantly more expensive than thought, making renewables and natural gas power generation more attractive.
For more than a decade the coal industry's favoured response to climate change was carbon capture and storage, or CCS. CCS is still the main defence, but the absence of functioning projects is making it ever more threadbare.
Replanting forests is one way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is a site in China.
CIFOR/Flickr
New research shows that we'll have to remove carbon from the atmosphere for any chance of keeping warming below 2C.
Countries should make pledges to fund low-carbon research - such as developing solar technology - and development as part of global climate talks.
University of Salford Press Office/Flickr
Countries will take emissions reduction pledges to international climate talks in Paris at the end of this year. Those pledges should also include funds for low-carbon R&D.
Another way to change the carbon balance: trees.
Neil Palmer/CIAT for Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
Divestment campaigns aim to halt the use of fossil fuels, but the climate can be also stabilized through ‘recarbonization’ techniques, such as reforestation and changing agricultural practices.
The first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage operation at a coal power plant went online last year in Canada.
SaskPower
Carbon capture and storage – pumping CO2 from power plants underground – is required for dramatic cuts on CO2 emissions. Why is adoption of this technology losing steam?
Renewables or oil? The former means betting each-way on energy storage. The latter means hoping to pull off a trifecta on carbon storage.
Hans Engbers/Shutterstock.com
The question of whether the future will be powered by coal and oil or by renewable energy is crucially important, both to the medium-term future of the Australian economy and to the long-term future of…
Coal seam gas is only one issue for managing one of Australia’s most important geological resources.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Sara Bice, University of Melbourne; Mike Sandiford, University of Melbourne, and Will Howard, University of Melbourne
In a recent article on The Conversation, Queensland coal seam gas (CSG) researchers argued that the industry is progressing faster than the science, leading to concerns over fugitive emissions and impacts…
CSIRO’s solar-concentrating mirrors can be used for several purposes, including creating high-energy ‘SolarGas’.
CSIRO
As climate negotiators meet at the United Nations’ Lima summit, which comes hot on the heels of the landmark US-China climate deal, there is a renewed focus on how the world can move to a lower-emissions…
Investing in fossil fuels for the long term? You might find your plans get pricked.
klublu/Shutterstock
The controversy ignited by the Australian National University in October, when it decided to sell its shares in seven resources companies, has raised two important questions about divestment from assets…
Could carbon capture and storage be the way to clean up coal power stations, such as this one in Australia’s Latrobe Valley?
Monash University/Flickr
To have any chance of avoiding dangerous climate change we’ll have to reduce the carbon emissions from our energy sectors — currently the largest human source of greenhouse gas emissions globally. And…
A protester at recent Australia climate change rallies in the lead up to the UN climate summit in New York.
AAP Image/NEWZULU/ZOE REYNOLDS
Today more than 120 world leaders are gathered in New York for the Climate Leaders’ Summit. With global emissions continuing to rise, it is easy to be pessimistic. But new research released today shows…
Budgets are often framed as give and take. But in the case of the environment, the government is taking large amounts of money in cuts, while giving little back beyond funding the Direct Action climate…
Biomass energy plants, such as this one in the UK, could be crucial for a low-emission future.
Peter Robinson/Wikimedia Commons