In recent years, Carbon Capture and Storage (Sequestration) (CCS) has been proposed as a potential method to allow the continued use of fossil-fuelled power stations whilst preventing emissions of CO2 from reaching the atmosphere. Gas, coal (and biomass)-fired power stations can respond to changes in demand more readily than many other sources of electricity production, hence the importance of retaining them as an option in the energy mix. Here, we review the leading CO2 capture technologies, available in the short and long term, and their technological maturity, before discussing CO2 transport and storage. Current pilot plants and demonstrations are highlighted, as is the importance of optimising the CCS system as a whole. Other topics briefly discussed include the viability of both the capture of CO2 from the air and CO2 reutilisation as climate change mitigation strategies. Finally, we discuss the economic and legal aspects of CCS.

Carbon capture and storage update

[1] Arctic amplification (AA) – the observed enhanced warming in high northern latitudes relative to the northern hemisphere – is evident in lower-tropospheric temperatures and in 1000-to-500 hPa thicknesses. Daily fields of 500 hPa heights from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Reanalysis are analyzed over N. America and the N. Atlantic to assess changes in north-south (Rossby) wave characteristics associated with AA and the relaxation of poleward thickness gradients. Two effects are identified that each contribute to a slower eastward progression of Rossby waves in the upper-level flow: 1) weakened zonal winds, and 2) increased wave amplitude. These effects are particularly evident in autumn and winter consistent with sea-ice loss, but are also apparent in summer, possibly related to earlier snow melt on high-latitude land. Slower progression of upper-level waves would cause associated weather patterns in mid-latitudes to be more persistent, which may lead to an increased probability of extreme weather events that result from prolonged conditions, such as drought, flooding, cold spells, and heat waves.

High temperature electrolysis in alkaline cells, solid proton conducting cells, and solid oxide cells.

The paper sets out a proposal for bridging and linking three approaches to the analysis of transitions to sustainable and low-carbon societies: quantitative systems modelling; socio-technical transition analysis; and initiative-based learning. We argue that each of these approaches presents a partial and incomplete picture, which has implications for the quality and usefulness of the insights they can deliver for policy and practice. A framework for bridging these different approaches promises to enrich each of the approaches, while providing the basis for a more robust and complete analysis of sustainable transitions pathways that serves better to address questions and dilemmas faced by decision-makers and practitioners. We elaborate five key challenges for the analysis and governance of transitions pathways, and compare the three approaches in relation to each of these. We suggest an integration strategy based on alignment, bridging, and iteration, arguing that a structured dialogue between practitioners of different approaches is needed. In practical terms, such a dialogue would be organised around three areas of joint knowledge production: defining common analytical or governance problems to be tackled through integration; establishing shared concepts (boundary objects); and establishing operational bridging devices (data and metrics, pathways evaluation and their delivery). Such processes could include experts and societal partners. We draw conclusions about future research perspectives and the role of analysis in transitions governance.

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Evaluating sustainability transitions pathways: Bridging analytical approaches to address governance challenges

The impact of energy consumption and economic development on Ecological Footprint and CO2 emissions: Evidence from a Markov Switching Equilibrium Correction Model

A socio-technical framework for assessing the viability of carbon capture and storage technology

Geoengineering, especially its potentially fast and high-leverage versions, is often justified as a necessary response to possible future climate emergencies. In this article, we take the notion of ‘necessity’ in international law as a starting point in assessing how rapid, high-leverage geoengineering might be justified legally. The need to specify reliably ‘grave and imminent peril’ makes such a justification difficult because our scientific ability to predict abrupt climate change, for example, as tipping elements, is limited. The time it takes to establish scientific consensus as well as policy acceptance restricts the scope for effective forewarning and so pre-emptive justifications for geoengineering become more tempting. While recognizing that dangerous, large-scale impacts of climate change is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid, the pre-emptive, emergency frame is problematic. We suggest that arguments from emergency operate on a high level of uncertainty and tend toward hubristic attempts to shape the future, as well as tending to close down rather than open up space for deliberation. We conclude that the emergency frame is not likely to go away, that ignoring or repressing it is a dangerous response, and that more effort is required to defuse and disarm emergency rhetoric.

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‘In case of emergency press here’: framing geoengineering as a response to dangerous climate change

PART I: CONTINUITY AND RUPTURE 1. The Problem of Perceptions of National Socialist Law or: Was there a Constitutional Theory of National Socialism? Oliver Lepsius 2. Looking into the Brightly Lit Room: Braving Carl Schmitt in 'Europe' Navraj Singh Ghaleigh PART II: THE ERA OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM AND FASCISM 3. The Fascist Theory of Contract Pier Giuseppe Monateri and Allessandro Somma 4. 'Spheres of Influence' and 'Volkisch' Legal Thought: Reinhard Hohn's Notion of Europe Ingo J Hueck 5. 'The outsider does not see al the game...': Perceptions of German Law in Anglo-American Legal Scholarship,1933-11940 David Fraser 6. 'A Distorted Image of Ourselves': Nazism, 'Liberal' Societies and the Qualities of Difference Laurence Lustgarten PART III: CONTINUITY AND RECONFIGURATION 7. Carl Schmitt's Europe: Cultural, Imperial and Spatial, Proposals for European Integration, 1923-1955 John P McCormick 8. Culture and the Rationality of Law from Weimar to Maastricht J Peter Burgess 9. Europe a Gro?raum? Shifting Legal Conceptualisations of the Integration Project Christian Joerges 10. From Gro?raum to Condominium-A Comment Neil Walker 11. Formalism and Anti-formalism in French and German Judicial Methodology Vivian Grosswald Curran 12. Judicial Methodology and Fascist and Nazi Law Matthias Mahlmann 13. On Nazi 'Honour' and the New European 'Dignity' James Q Whitman 14. On Fascist Honour and Human Dignity: A Sceptical Response Gerald L Neuman 15. Corporatist Doctrine and the 'New European Order' Luca Nogler PART IV: RESPONSES TO NATIONAL SOCIALISM AND FASCISM IN NATIONAL LEGAL CULTURES 16. The German Impact on Fascist Public Law Doctrine-Costantino Mortati's Material Constitution Massimo La Torre 17. Mortati and the Science of Public Law: A Comment on La Torre Giacinto Della Cananea 18. From Republicanism to Fascist Ideology under The Early Franquismo Augustin Jose Menendez 19. Authoritarian Constitutionalism: Austrian Constitutional Doctrine 1933 to 1938 and its Legacy Alexander Somek

http://www.gbv.de/dms/sbb-berlin/368450716.pdf

Darker Legacies of Law in Europe: The Shadow of National Socialism and Fascism Over Europe and its Legal Traditions

The Oxford Handbook of International Climate Change Law

Carbon capture and storage: realising the potential? is the culmination of a two-year project funded by UKERC and led by Professor Jim Watson, Director of the Sussex Energy Group .
 
The project is an independent, inter-disciplinary assessment of the viability of CCS technologies from now to 2030. Although these technologies could be a crucial component of global climate change mitigation strategies, there are significant uncertainties about their technical, economic and financial viability.
 
The report draws lessons from history, and concludes that previous technologies have faced similar challenges to those affecting CCS technologies today. In the past, such uncertainties have been resolved sufficiently for these technologies to succeed. While care is needed when learning from history, the findings offer some optimism that, given the right actions by government and industry, the uncertainties surrounding CCS can also be dealt with.

/pdf/carbon-capture-and-storage-realising-the-potential-4kpcz1rvcl.pdf

Navraj Singh Ghaleigh

Papers

A socio-technical framework for assessing the viability of carbon capture and storage technology

‘In case of emergency press here’: framing geoengineering as a response to dangerous climate change

Darker Legacies of Law in Europe: The Shadow of National Socialism and Fascism Over Europe and its Legal Traditions

The Oxford Handbook of International Climate Change Law

Carbon Capture and Storage Realising the potential