3.3 Reducing the car bon intensity of energy produ...
Greenhouse emissions have to be considered in ener gy policy planning.
Accor ding to the Intergover n ment Panel on Cli mate Change(IPCC),emissions of greenhouse gases(such as car bon dioxide,methane and nitr ous oxide)continue to alter the earth’s at mosphere in ways that are expected to affect the cli mate.The war mest year on recor d was 1998.There is no longer any reasonable doubt t hat greenhouse emissions are playing a key role in the increase,and acceleration,of global war ming.(https://www.daowen.com)
Against t his backgr ound a continuing escalation in f ossil f uel use will onl y make global war ming worse.Thereis a growing inter national effort theref ore to find alter native sol utions t hat are less car bon intensive,but at t he sa me ti me meet t he ener gy needs of the developed and developing world.
Develop ment of renewable ener gy resources is part of t he sol ution to t his pr oblem.In this context hydroelectricity has a role to play.Use of water f or electricity generation is essentiall y a non-consu mptive use of a natural resource.It also pr oduces ver y few greenhouse gas emissions when compared with alter native methods of electricity generation.Esti mates of“gr oss”emissions fr o m boreal reser voirs are 60 ti mes lo wer t han emissions from coal-fired plants and 30 ti mes lower than emissions from efficient natural gas plants.(Gagnon,2002).These differences are even greater when more appr opriate“net”emissions are used.While more research is needed,present indications point to very l ow“net”emissions wit h nearl y all car bon being transported by rivers,wit h or wit hout dams,exiting to the at mosphere rather than accu mulating in ocean sedi ments.