Reservoir management and environmental protection: The mitigation of climate change

It is widely accepted that human activities which produce greenhouse gases have had a discernible effect upon global mean temperatures over the last 50 years. A number of gases entering the atmosphere as a result of human activities can act as greenhouse gases. The most important is carbon dioxide the atmospheric concentration of which has risen by about 30% compared to pre-industrial concentrations. Energy related emissions arising from the use of fossil fuels account for more than 80% of the CO2 released to the atmosphere each year with these fuels accounting for around 90% of the world's commercial energy production. The provisions of the 1997 Kyoto protocol go some way to promote reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases and are an important first step. However, according to this presentation, current energy production and consumption patterns violate principles of sustainability. As a result the world is committed to warming as a result of emissions of greenhouse gases from the use of these fuels. Pragmatically, one should limit the use of fossil fuels and eventually replace them by renewable energy sources.and efforts to increase the overall energy efficiency. Given this, proposals to sequester and dump/store carbon dioxide are an unsustainable solution in their own right, but also perpetuate unsustainable energy use based on fossil fuels. Probably attempts to limit the impacts of climate change by the capture and disposal of CO2 will result in undesirable and unanticipated impacts. The presentation recommends that resources currently deployed in investigating disposal schemes for CO2 should rather go to the development of renewable energy generation and energy efficiency.