September 3rd, 2009

Bloomberg News highlights PESD's research on CCS in China

Bloomberg discusses PESD's publication The Real Drivers of Carbon Capture and Storage in China and Implications for Climate Policy and how its conclusions impact the debate ahead of the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Read more »

August 19th, 2009

"Cash for clunkers" not cost effective for carbon dioxide emissions reduction

PESD affiliated faculty Michael Wara's assessment of the popular "cash for clunkers" program is cited in The New York Times. While the government's cash payments for replacing old cars with more fuel efficient new ones may have value as an economic stimulus, Wara calculates that they are an expensive way to fight climate change, at an estimated $200-400 per ton of avoided carbon dioxide emissions.

• » Green Inc: High Carbon Cost for 'Clunkers' Program

August 18th, 2009

Rai and Victor's paper published in Economic and Political Weekly

In a paper released in the 1 August 2009 issue of the Economic and Political Weekly Varun Rai and David Victor outline a strategy to inform which efforts in India offer the most leverage on emissions warming gases and which are most credible because they align with India's own interests.

• » Climate Change and the Energy Challenge: A Pragmatic Approach for India

August 15th, 2009

PESD releases new working paper on "finesse" and "game-changer" strategies for advancing carbon capture and storage

In a new PESD working paper, Robert A. James of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP classifies frontier project development strategies into "finesses" and "game-changers." James then considers the implications of this framework for the case of carbon capture and storage (CCS), where numerous legal, business and technological barriers seem to stand in the way of wide technology deployment.

• » Finesses and Game-Changers in Frontier Project Development: The Case of Carbon Capture and Storage

August 11th, 2009

PESD CCS research quoted in The Washington Post

A Washington Post article on 11 August 2009 titled "Coal's Future Wagered on Carbon Capture" by Steven Mufson quoted PESD research on the economics and scale of carbon capture and storage (CCS). The article discusses the need for CCS at scale, and also highlights the technological and cost challenges of CCS. Read more »

August 3rd, 2009

Burton Richter in Roll Call: US climate bill needs more support for energy R&D

PESD affiliated faculty Burton Richter argues in Roll Call that the climate bill passed by the US House of Representatives misses the mark on several fronts, especially in its inadequate funding for long-term research. The Senate must do better. Read more »

June 23rd, 2009

PESD releases new working paper on potential for CCS technology to capture greenhouse gases in electricity sector

Focusing on capture systems for coal-fired power plants until 2030, a sensitivity analysis of key CCS parameters is performed to gain insight into the role that CCS can play in future mitigation scenarios and to explore implications of large-scale CCS deployment.

• » Role of Carbon Capture Technologies in Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Models: A Parametric Study for the U.S. Power Sector

David Victor presses case for geo-engineering

Green Inc. Blog follows David Victor's ruminations on geo-engineering and his call for governments and policymakers to take the topic seriously. Read more »

June 22nd, 2009

David Victor on the need for more research and international protocols governing geo-engineering

As the threat of global warming grows more urgent, a few scientists are considering radical and possibly extremely dangerous schemes for re-engineering the climate by brute force. Their ideas are technologically plausible and quite cheap. So cheap, in fact, that a rich and committed environmentalist could act on them tomorrow. And that's the scariest part. Read more »

June 17th, 2009

Global warming: why the 2 °C goal is a political delusion

In a letter to the editors of Nature, David Victor submits the complicating and dangerous factors involved with a maximum 2 °Celsius target to rein in global warming by adopting a cumulative budget for carbon emissions. Governments need shorter-term goals that can translate into credible promises they make to each other and carry out now. Read more »

June 11th, 2009

David Victor on the hidden costs of the Waxman-Markey Energy Bill

Experts are applauding the sweeping energy bill currently before the U.S. Congress but many, like Victor, warn that the bill's market-based approach could make emissions reductions more expensive than they need to be. Read more »