The planet continues to warm; 0.5 C from the 1970's to the 2000's. Also, worldwide CO_2 emissions have increased at a 3% annual growth rate from 2000 to 2010. Such emissions are driven by fossil fuel combustion, especially in the power generation sector, & especially in emerging economies such as China & India. If such fossil fuel intensive activity continues, based on recent Royal Society analysis, the planet could experience 4 °C warming as early as 2065. This could yield potentially catastrophic impacts. In order to mitigate such climate change, major reductions in emissions will be necessary in all sectors. Since the power generation sector emits more CO_2 than any other sector, & since power plants are large controllable sources, major reductions will be needed from this critically important sector. IEA analysis suggest that for this sector, an 80% emission reduction will be needed internationally in order to achieve 50% reduction across all the sectors by 2050. A similar analysis for the U.S., suggests that greater than a 90% reduction may be necessary to achieve an overall national reduction of 50% by 2050. Also, in light of the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power appears to be a less viable mitigation option than it was before the disaster. This suggests that Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) technology will be increasingly important, if coal & natural gas are to continue to provide base load power in a carbon constrained world in the decades ahead.
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