SLAC Colloquium: Reconciling the Rapid Growth of Coal and CO2 Emissions in Global Energy Markets

Monday, March 23, 2009
4:15 PM - 6:00 PM
(Pacific)
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Panofsky Auditorium Building 43
Speaker: 
  • Richard Morse

Coal is both the world's fastest growing fossil fuel and a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. While in the West coal use is under pressure, much of the developing world is predicating economic growth on cheap, reliable electricity from coal. As a result, the next few decades are likely to witness a massive build out of coal capacity.

Morse will explore where coal markets are growing, examine what economic and political variables have the greatest impact on coal use and the global coal trade, and discuss possible leverage points for CO2 mitigation. One mitigation option is a technology called carbon capture and storage, or CCS. Should we place big bets on this expensive and largely unproven option? Morse will discuss whether the current state of CCS deployment for coal-fired power falls short of mitigation levels required by many widely publicized targets and proceed to analyze the potential for commercial deployment of CCS technology at scale.