Summary
| Subject keyword(s) | Geoscience |
|---|---|
| Grade level | Higher Education, Informal Education, Vocational/Professional Development Education |
| Intended audience | Educator, Learner |
| Resource format | application, application/pdf |
| Rights | Visit resource website for further information. Rights information not provided locally. |
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Home Center for Global Change Science Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change Reports Login An issue of permanence: assessing the effectiveness of temporary carbon storage Show full item record Citable URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/3639 Title: An issue of permanence: assessing the effectiveness of temporary carbon storage Author: Herzog, Howard J.; Caldeira, Ken.; Reilly, John M. Issue Date: 2002-12 Abstract: In this paper, we present a method to quantify the effectiveness of carbon mitigation options taking into account the "permanence" of the emissions reduction. While the issue of permanence is most commonly associated with a "leaky" carbon sequestration reservoir, we argue that this is an issue that applies to just about all carbon mitigation options. The appropriate formulation of this problem is to ask 'what is the value of temporary storage?' Valuing temporary storage can be represented as a familiar economic problem, with explicitly stated assumptions about carbon prices and the discount rate. To illustrate the methodology, we calculate the sequestration effectiveness for injecting CO2 at various depths in the ocean. Analysis is performed for three limiting carbon price assumptions: constant carbon prices (assumes constant marginal damages), carbon prices rise at the discount rate (assumes efficient allocation of a cumulative emissions cap without a backstop technology), and carbon prices first rise at the discount rate but become constant after a given time (assumes introduction of a backstop technology). Our results show that the value of relatively deep ocean carbon sequestration can be nearly equivalent to permanent sequestration if marginal damages (i.e., carbon prices) remain constant or if there is a backstop technology that caps the abatement cost in the not too distant future. On the other hand, if climate damages are such as to require a fixed cumulative emissions limit and there is no backstop, then a storage option with even very slow leakage has limited value relative to a permanent storage option. Description: Abstract in HTML and technical report in PDF available on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://mit.edu/globalchange/www/). URI: http://mit.edu/globalchange/www/abstracts.html#a92 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/3639 Other Identifiers: no. 92 Series/Report no.: Report no. 92 Files in this item Files Size Format View MITJPSPGC_Rpt92.pdf 345.1Kb PDF View/Open This item appears in the following Collection(s) Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change Reports Report Series intended to communicate research results, and provide useful reviews and commentaries on various aspects of the global climate change issue. Show full item record Search DSpace@MIT Search DSpace@MIT This CollectionAdvanced Search Browse All of DSpace@MIT Communities & Collections By Issue Date Authors Titles Subjects This Collection By Issue Date Authors Titles Subjects My Account Login Register Links About DSpace@MIT All Items in DSpace@MIT are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Contact MIT Libraries