Fossil fuels
When dead plant and animal materials become trapped underground as carbon and are exposed to enormous pressure and heat over millions of years fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas are formed, When they are burned in a power station, home or car, carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Fossil fuel use is a major feature of the following sectors which, besides deforestation and agriculture, are most responsible for climate change.
Our fossil fuel resources are finite and because they are not being replenished, the amount of fossil fuel the world as a whole can produce, must eventually peak and decline. For oil, in various countries (like the US), this peak has already been reached and production is in decline. At present rates of production, our oil supply would peak as early as the next decade, with gas following it within two decades, and finally, coal.
As fossil fuel supply levels drop so the price will rise. While the increase in oil prices has been hard not to notice, even coal is not immune: Eskom expects its coal bill to double from 2008/9 to 2011/12.
Fossil fuels are an increasingly expensive and dangerously polluting source of energy . Renewable energy can replace fossil fuels in producing electricity and heat, while electric vehicles can replace the use of oil in transport.
Billions of dollars are being invested in testing and developing carbon capture and storage technology to bury the emissions from burning fossil fuels. Relatively pure carbon dioxide is pumped into underground cavities where it liquefies and after many years, becomes rock. The technology is still years off from being proven at scale or making a substantial impact and looks set to be expensive and limited by available geological space.
A cost-effective alternative to geological carbon storage exists in biological carbon capture and storage. Restoring tropical forest and other biomes, will enable these eco-systems to capture and store carbon in plants and soils. Restoring biomes to increase land-based carbon will not be sufficient on its own to prevent dangerous climate change, but it is cost-effective and pro-poor action that deserves attention.
Our fossil fuel resources are finite and because they are not being replenished, the amount of fossil fuel the world as a whole can produce, must eventually peak and decline. For oil, in various countries (like the US), this peak has already been reached and production is in decline. At present rates of production, our oil supply would peak as early as the next decade, with gas following it within two decades, and finally, coal.
As fossil fuel supply levels drop so the price will rise. While the increase in oil prices has been hard not to notice, even coal is not immune: Eskom expects its coal bill to double from 2008/9 to 2011/12.
Fossil fuels are an increasingly expensive and dangerously polluting source of energy . Renewable energy can replace fossil fuels in producing electricity and heat, while electric vehicles can replace the use of oil in transport.
Billions of dollars are being invested in testing and developing carbon capture and storage technology to bury the emissions from burning fossil fuels. Relatively pure carbon dioxide is pumped into underground cavities where it liquefies and after many years, becomes rock. The technology is still years off from being proven at scale or making a substantial impact and looks set to be expensive and limited by available geological space.
A cost-effective alternative to geological carbon storage exists in biological carbon capture and storage. Restoring tropical forest and other biomes, will enable these eco-systems to capture and store carbon in plants and soils. Restoring biomes to increase land-based carbon will not be sufficient on its own to prevent dangerous climate change, but it is cost-effective and pro-poor action that deserves attention.
Coal fired power
Fossil fuels most causing Climate Change
- Energy supply: 25.9% (primarily coal)
- Industry: 19.4% (primarily fossil fuel use)
- Transport: 13.1% (primarily oil)
- Commercial and residential buildings: 7.9% (primarily fossil fuel use)
