The End of CO2?

The end may be in sight to phase out CO2-emitting coal by 2030, according to Architecture 2030 a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization established in response to the global-warming crisis.  That conclusion comes from researchers at leading institutions such as NASA, NREL, Architecture 2030 and Columbia University.

The paper issued by the institutions – titled “Options for Near-Term Phaseout of CO2 Emissions from Coal Use in the United States” – will be published in the June edition of Environmental Science & Technology, the official publication of the American Chemical Society.  According to the article, “The only practical way to preserve a planet resembling that of the Holocene (i.e., the world as we know it)…is to rapidly phase out coal emissions.”

Architecture 2030 notes that “This sets up an immediate choice.  We can phase out coal CO2 emissions by 2030 and keep the planet we have or we can continue with ‘business as usual’ and hope for the best in one of the craziest games of risk the world has ever known.  Which ending will we choose?”

Architecture 2030 is advocating to phase out coal CO2 emissions by the target year because they think “the game of risk” isn’t worthwhile and because the United States already has all the tools it needs to achieve that goal.  “We don’t have to wait on ‘clean coal’ technology, technically known as carbon capture and sequestration (CSS), which is decades away and may not be proven economically or technologically feasible.  We can phase out coal emissions with existing know-how and off-the shelf technologies.”