Algae-coated buildings, artificial trees and reflective buildings could all be valuable weapons in the battle against dangerous climate change, buying the world extra time to decarbonise the global economy, a new report suggests.
The report from the
Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) also claims that if such approaches were adopted, they could create between one and two million new green jobs for the UK economy by 2050.
The report –
'Geo-Engineering – Giving Us Time To Act?’ – argues that Governments have, until now, overlooked the potential of geo-engineering to help tackle climate change.
It says most efforts have focused instead on reducing emissions and, more recently, on climate change adaptation (where critical assets, such as power generation and transport links are redesigned and rebuilt to protect against
future changes in climate).
While conceding that it is no replacement for reducing
CO2 emissions, IMechE argues that by developing technology that would remove CO2 from the atmosphere, or cool the planet by reflecting solar radiation back into space, geo-engineering could buy valuable extra time.
“After decades of failed mitigation, geo-engineering may give us those extra few years to transition to a low carbon world and prevent any one of the future climate change scenarios we all fear,” said lead author, Dr Tim Fox,
head of IMechE environment and climate change.
Artificial trees planted along motorways or even out at sea are
IMechE’s favourite solution. When air passes through the ‘tree’, CO2 sticks to its ‘leaves’ and can then be removed and buried underground in the same way as
conventional
carbon capture and storage (CCS).According to the report, each tree – manufactured at a cost of around £15,000 per unit – could remove as much as 10 tonnes of
CO2 a day. Indeed, it says, if just 100,000 were created, this would be sufficient to capture the whole of the UK’s current emissions from transport pollution.
Tubes of algae fitted to the outside of buildings to absorb CO2 through photosynthesis, offer another favoured solution. Periodically the algae could be harvested from the surfaces and used as biofuel.
The other top three solution identified by IMechE is simply to make buildings more reflective, reducing the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the earth’s climate and potentially cooling the planet.
The report says reflective roofing could reduce air-conditioning use by up to 60 per cent, but issues of glare and aesthetics would need to be considered.
IMechE stress that all of these options will require more research and has called on the UK Government to invest between £10 and £20 million pounds to support a national start-up research project.
The report will be presented at party conferences and to a select group of politicians and MPs later this year.
Related News:
CO2 and Carbon Reduction NewsCarbon Capture and Storage (CCS) NewsRelated Sites:
www.imeche.org