Global Warming With Bp Solution

[lonely capricorn]

GLOBAL WARMING

OVERVIEWING

There is an increasing consensus that climate change is linked to the consumption of carbon based fuels and that action is required now to avoid further increases in carbon emissions as the global demand for energy increases
As a global energy company, providing around 2% of the world’s primary energy, we have a responsibility to help the world meet its increasing demand for energy in a sustainable way, taking precautionary action to address the threat of climate change.
BP Alternative Energy
In 2005 we launched BP Alternative Energy, a business that plans to invest $8 billion over the next ten years to produce electricity from low carbon sources - solar, wind, hydrogen and natural gas. Our goal is to build a profitable, global and market leading low-carbon power business by 2015. By this date, we estimate that this will help to reduce forecast greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 24 million tonnes a year – equivalent to taking 6 million average UK cars off the road.
2005 in summary
Our efforts to promote a better understanding of climate change and to control GHG emissions continued on several other fronts. This year we:
• made progress towards more sustainable transport, by developing alternative fuel and lubricant products that enable customers to limit their emissions
• sustained voluntary efforts to minimise our own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through energy efficiency projects in our operations
• continued to promote global solutions for climate change by advocating prudent but progressive policy development
• continued to support research into technological solutions to curb emissions
• remained active in the debate to encourage development of prudent policy frameworks
• took steps to raise consumers' awareness of their opportunities to address climate change
EXPLAINING THE ISSUE
Greenhouse gases including water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane, are naturally present in the atmosphere. They are the world's insulation, absorbing long wave infra-red radiation emitted by the earth's surface
Without greenhouse gases (GHGs) the world would be about 33°C colder, so in this sense GHGs are life-supporting. The issue is not their presence but the concentrations at which they occur. As concentrations increase, the earth’s surface temperature may rise, leading to global warming.
Global warming
The likely effects of global warming include a greater frequency of extreme weather conditions: droughts; heat waves; and floods caused by rising sea levels.

Carbon dioxide concentrations have risen from an estimated 280 parts per million (ppm) before the industrial revolution, to 380 ppm today. During the last century, the earth’s surface temperature rose by about 0.6°C. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that it could rise by between 1.4 and 5.8°C by the end of this century.
The Kyoto Protocol and G8 summit
In 2005, climate change was at the top of the global policy agenda. The Kyoto Treaty came into force, committing the 156 participating countries to making emissions reductions and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme became operational. However, Kyoto was only designed as a first step – and policy makers are now discussing what new agreement might follow it in 2012 and how all significant countries can be involved.
The issue was discussed by the G8 group of world leaders at their July summit and at the United Nations Climate Change meeting in Montreal in December. The year also saw increasing scientific consensus on the potential risks of climate change, exemplified by a report issued by the Scientific Academies of the G8 countries, along with those of Brazil, China and India. The report concluded that global warming is occurring and added that most of the warming in recent decades is likely to have been caused by human activity.


FACING THE CHALLANGE

Action to tackle greenhouse gas emissions is essential, but we must also address the fact that increases in energy consumption, vital to raise living standards, currently rely on carbon based fuels
In 2005, a decade of action culminated in the launch of BP Alternative Energy – but we have made significant progress over the past ten years.
A decade of action
The launch of BP Alternative Energy in 2005 followed nearly a decade of action by BP to address climate change. In 1997 BP was widely acknowledged for publicly advocating precautionary action and in 1998 set voluntary targets to reduce its own emissions. By 2001 our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 10% below 1990 levels and we have since continued to improve our own GHG emissions performance through energy efficiency projects. We have also supported research into technological solutions to curb emissions.


Lower carbon solutions
We have developed products that help customers to reduce their emissions. We have substantially increased our production and distribution of natural gas, which produces only about half the CO2 emissions of the conventional coal technology when used to generate power. We have developed a major solar business, which moved into profit in 2004, and built our first wind farms in 2002. We have pioneered technologies for capturing and geologically storing carbon dioxide. We have also made further progress towards sustainable transportation, extending the use of cleaner fuels, biofuels and lubricants.
Informing consumers
We have also tried to raise our customers’ awareness of the issues. In 2005 we launched a simple carbon footprint calculator on our web-site based on UK and US data, for residents to assess their household CO2 emissions and to see how they can reduce them

Stabilizing GHG emissions


We support precautionary action to limit greenhouse gas emissions even though aspects of the science are still the subject of expert debate
In our view, the goal must be to stabilise GHG levels through sustainable long-term emissions reductions.
Stating our position
We support the emerging consensus that it would be prudent to limit the increase in the world’s temperature to about 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. One way to achieve this would be to ensure that global emissions in 2050 are no higher than today’s – around 25 billion tonnes of CO2 a year. This is a major challenge, because if no action is taken, emissions are expected to double in line with energy use.
Setting out the options
Research at Princeton University, supported by BP, has produced different options for achieving the reductions outlined above, based on existing technologies. These suggest ways in which energy could be produced and consumed to reduce emissions by around 3.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (equivalent to 1 billion tonnes of carbon per year) by 2050.
The options include:
• using existing energy efficiency methods to cut carbon emissions from buildings by 25%
• increasing fuel economy in cars so that 2 billion vehicles run at an average of 60mpg rather than the current 30mpg
• using natural gas rather than coal at 1400 one gigawatt power stations
• capturing and storing the carbon generated at 1600 gas power stations
• achieving a 50-fold increase in wind power
• achieving a 700-fold increase in the use of solar panels
• production of 34 million barrels of bio-fuels a day, utilizing around 250 million hectares of arable land (around 16.5% of the world’s available resources)
Putting theory into practice
We believe that the reduction can be achieved using a mixture of existing and emerging technologies. We support an inclusive approach that recognizes the existence of different starting points, perspectives, priorities and solutions. These include innovation to cut carbon dioxide emissions from fossils fuels, for example capturing and storing the carbon dioxide generated at power stations. Other strategies include significantly increasing the efficiency of fuel economy of motor vehicles, increasing the energy efficiency of buildings and radically increasing wind and solar capacity. Governments and businesses need to work together to create a policy framework that drives economic progress and provides energy security at the same time as delivering significant emissions reductions.
We see our own role as pursuing efficiency in our own operations, creating cleaner products for customers and contributing to an informed debate. For example, we have advocated that emission caps should be introduced and that market mechanisms, such as emissions trading, be used to enable economies to adjust to a carbon-constrained world. We also argue that policy should create a level playing field that provides similar encouragement to different means of achieving emissions reductions – such as renewables and carbon capture.
Promoting prudent policy development
We participate in several groups to help provide a strong business voice for progressive policy development and have offered our practical experiences of operating an internal emissions trading system to policy makers and academics.


Emissions from our products


To meet the energy needs of developing countries and sustain economic growth in developed regions, while also stemming the recent trend of GHG emissions growth – we face two global challenges
The energy we use must contain progressively less carbon in each unit of energy consumed. And we must use this energy more efficiently.

BP can contribute on both counts. Power generation and transport together account for over 60% of global carbon dioxide emissions. So it makes sense to focus our efforts in these areas – developing a low-carbon power business under the BP Alternative Energy banner and offering advanced fuels and lubricants to provide customers with products that help them reduce emissions.
Carbon footprint calculator
Because dry emissions data usually fails to engage or explain, we launched a simple carbon footprint calculator on our website during 2005, based on UK and US data, to help residents assess household carbon dioxide emissions and use energy more efficiently.
Emissions from our products in 2005
In 2003, we reported our estimates of the CO2 emissions from the products sold by BP. During 2005 we revised our methodology for this estimate to provide a more reliable indicator of product emissions from our asset backed operations.

Using the revised methodology we estimate CO2 emissions from BP products at around 570Mte in 2005; on the same basis the figure for 2004 would have been 606Mte and for 2003 614 Mte. We also continue to monitor examples of product developments that allow customers to increase the efficiency of their operations, thereby reducing CO2 emissions.
The previous methodology was based upon total sales of products including traded and marketed products, and not related to BP operational assets. The new methodology uses BP’s production of natural gas and natural gas liquids plus our refinery throughputs to assess oil related emissions. Hydrocarbon volumes are converted using International Panel on Climate Change energy and CO2 conversion factors.


Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based mechanism that creates real incentives for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by attaching a measurable value to emissions
The EU Emissions Trading System
We believe the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), effectively the world’s largest ‘cap and trade’ programme for GHG emissions, provides the launch pad for development of a global carbon market.
We have taken part in the EU ETS since its launch in January 2005. We began the year with 30 participating operations but following divestments in the fourth quarter, we ended the year with 18 participating operations, representing around a quarter of our reported global GHG emissions.
The EU ETS is the centerpiece of the EU’s strategy to achieve GHG emissions reductions in line with the reduction targets agreed at Kyoto in 1997. As of 1 January 2005, the EU ETS includes approximately 11,500 energy intensive installations across EU-25 of which account for almost 2.2 billion tones of CO2 emissions - some 44.7% of total EU-25 GHG emissions. We believe EU ETS should eventually be extended as part of a wider global drive to reduce emissions.
We have created an Emissions Markets Group to manage all our emissions trading activities, and established a trading desk in Integrated Supply and Trading – bringing together environmental, technical and business professionals with experience in the oil, gas and power markets. Processes have been devised to ensure our participating sites comply with the EU ETS and the system provides added incentives for those sites to reduce emissions.
How 'cap and trade' works
Emissions are managed through ‘cap and trade’ systems like ETS by setting a limit or ‘cap’ on total emissions. Individual participants in the system are given allowances to generate specified levels of emissions, and have a clear choice. They must either find ways to keep emissions below their permitted level, or buy allowances from another participant in the marketplace. We believe that trading is one of the best ways to encourage businesses to reduce emissions and to harness the power of innovative processes and technologies to help them do so.
Unlike carbon taxes, cap and trade systems guarantee specified emissions reductions. They set a real cost on emissions and provide incentives to reduce this cost by investing in better management, new technologies and improved processes. In the US, sulphur dioxide has been effectively traded for some time.
Supporting research
We support the search for lower carbon energy alternatives and solutions to climate change. We sponsor research activities at leading universities around the world
Stanford University, USA
At Stanford University in the US, we’re sponsoring a three-year research programme worth $2m, covering the public policy aspects of modern energy markets.
Imperial College, UK
BP has launched an $8 million project at Imperial College London, to research the use of energy in cities. The BP Urban Energy Systems project will explore in detail how energy, people and materials flow through a city and how money and energy could be saved in the future.
Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University, China
A 10 year $10 million programme called ‘Clean Energy – Facing the Future’ is being undertaken with BP’s support at the Chinese Academy of Science and Tsinghua University, Beijing. The programme is looking at potential breakthroughs in clean energy technologies to enable China and the rest of the world to meet future demand for energy without damaging the environment. We’ve also provided a $500,000 grant to help establish the Tsinghua BP Clean Energy Research and Education Centre.
The CO2 Capture and Geological Storage Project
The CO2 Capture and Geological Storage Project (CCP), which brings together BP and a range of other companies, supported by the UK, US and Norwegian governments, has moved into a new $50 million phase, focusing on the safety and security of geological storage and reducing the uncertainties around technology cost and performance.
The Carbon Mitigation Initiative
The Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI) is a science and technology collaborative project between BP, Ford Motors Company and Princeton University. CMI is a $20 million project and in it’s fifth year. The CMI project continues to work on improving understanding of the science as well as developing technology and strategies to help solve the climate change problem.
In Salah, Algeria
A $30 million science project has been established to take advantage of the learning from this CO2 capture and storage initiative already underway at a gas production site operated by BP in the Algeria. This project also plans to develop and test new tools for CO2 monitoring and surveillance
Carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage technologies have real potential to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions
They can prevent carbon dioxide from reaching the atmosphere; instead, the gas is returned to geological formations thousands of metres below the earth’s surface.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can be used at power stations and hydrogen or oil and gas production facilities. However, before it can be put into wider use, two key issues must be resolved: costs must be commercially viable and public acceptance must be gained.
The Carbon Capture Project
BP leads on the $25m Carbon Capture Project (CCP) – a major public-private collaboration involving energy companies and governments. Over the past six years, the CCP has funded commercial and academic research into CCS – and principally, the ways in which it can be made more secure and cost effective.
Data published by the CCP in 2004 shows how some technologies could reduce the costs of capture by up to 60% at gas-fired power stations, and 48% at refineries. Over the next 4years, the CCP plans to explore ways to drive costs down further and develop standards for application worldwide.
CCS in Algeria
In 2004 we launched the CO2 capture and storage project at the In Salah gas field, in the Algeria desert. In Salah is a joint venture between Sonatrach, the Algeria national energy company, BP and Statoil. Approximately 10% of the gas in the reservoir is made up of CO2. Rather than venting the CO2, which is the established practice on other projects of this type, the project is compressing it and injecting it in wells 1,800 metres deep into a lower level of the gas reservoir where the reservoir is filled with water. Around one million tonnes of CO2 will be injected into the reservoir every year, which reduces GHGs by the equivalent of taking 200,000 cars off the road.
CCS in Scotland
In 2005 we declared our intention to start detailed engineering work for the first industrial-scale project to generate clean electricity from existing fossil fuels. This project, located at the Peterhead power station in Scotland, is being carried out with partners Shell, ConocoPhillips and Scottish and Southern Energy. It uses hydrogen manufactured from North Sea natural gas to create a decarbonized fuel, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by around 90%. In addition, it is estimated that some 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 will be permanently sequestrated.



Attestation note
The information on this page forms part of the information reviewed and reported on by Ernst & Young as part of BP's 2005 sustainability reporting.

[Amoeba]

WASHINGTON, June 22: It has been 2,000 years and possibly much longer since the Earth has run such a fever. The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported on Thursday that the ‘recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia’.

A panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that the Earth is heating up and that ‘human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming’.

Their 155-page report said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about one degree Fahrenheit during the 20th century.

This is shown in boreholes, retreating glaciers and other evidence found in nature, said Gerald North, a geosciences professor at Texas A&M University, who chaired the academy’s panel.

The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Republican Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, to address naysayers who question whether global warming is a major threat.

Boehlert said on Thursday the report shows the value of having scientists advise Congress.

“There is nothing in this report that should raise any doubts about the broad scientific consensus on global climate change,” he said.

Other findings showed that global warming produced about half of the extra hurricane-fuelled warmth in the North Atlantic in 2005, and natural cycles were a minor factor, according to Kevin Trenberth and Dennis Shea of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, a research lab sponsored by the National Science Foundation and universities. Their study is being published by the American Geophysical Union.

The Bush administration has maintained that the threat is not severe enough to warrant new pollution controls that the White House says would have cost 5 million Americans their jobs.

‘HOCKEY-STICK GRAPHIC”: Climate scientists Michael Mann, Raymond Bradley and Malcolm Hughes had concluded the Northern Hemisphere was the warmest it has been in 2,000 years. Their research was known as the “hockey-stick” graphic because it compared the sharp curve of the hockey blade to the recent uptick in temperatures and the stick’s long shaft to centuries of previous climate stability.

The National Academy scientists concluded that the Mann-Bradley-Hughes research from the late 1990s was “likely” to be true, said John “Mike” Wallace, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Washington and a panel member. The conclusions from the ‘90s research “are very close to being right” and are supported by even more recent data, Wallace said.

The panel looked at how other scientists reconstructed the Earth’s temperatures going back thousands of years, before there was data from modern scientific instruments.

For all but the most recent 150 years, the academy scientists relied on “proxy” evidence from tree rings, corals, glaciers and ice cores, cave deposits, ocean and lake sediments, boreholes and other sources. They also examined indirect records such as paintings of glaciers in the Alps.

Combining that information gave the panel “a high level of confidence that the last few decades of the 20th century were warmer than any comparable period in the last 400 years,” the academy said.

Overall, the panel agreed that the warming in the last few decades of the 20th century was unprecedented over the last 1,000 years, though relatively warm conditions persisted around the year 1000, followed by a ‘Little Ice Age’ from about 1500 to 1850.

The scientists said they had less confidence in the evidence of temperatures before 1600. But they considered it reliable enough to conclude there were sharp spikes in carbon dioxide and methane, the two major ‘greenhouse’ gases blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere, beginning in the 20th century, after remaining fairly level for 12,000 years.

Between 1 A.D. and 1850, volcanic eruptions and solar fluctuations were the main causes of changes in greenhouse gas levels. But those temperature changes “were much less pronounced than the warming due to greenhouse gas” levels by pollution since the mid-19th century, it said.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization chartered by Congress to advise the government of scientific matters.—AP