A simple spreadsheet for the assessment of options for the mitigation of world carbon dioxide emissions

Abstract

Emissions of carbon dioxide are classified into three categories arising from the generation of electricity, from mobile sources, and from all other stationary sources by fossil fuel type in a simple 4 × 4 spreadsheet. The selection of these groupings reflects the deep natural divisions in the energy economy. Another column is added to list the primary energy contributed by each fuel and another row at the bottom to account for primary electricity derived from hydraulic, nuclear, and, in the future, other similar sources such as photovoltaics and wind power. The spreadsheet technique is illustrated by linking two selected scenarios, the first for the capture and sequestering of carbon dioxide emitted from coal-based generation and the second for an aggressive co-generation scenario based upon natural gas, with a base oil supply scenario chosen to be sufficient to meet the foreseen ‘business-as-usual’ needs of the transportation industry until 2030. It is shown that both the sequestering and co-generation options are helpful in meeting a control scenario requiring emissions of carbon dioxide to be stabilized at 6.0 gigatonnes carbon per year (GT C/y) on a world basis by 2010 and thereafter, but that additional measures would be needed to reach a sustainable level of 3.0 GT C/y by 2030.