A worldwide analysis of stranded fossil fuel assets鈥� impact on power plants鈥� CO2 emissions

Daniel Morton — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 21:00:01 +0000

A worldwide analysis of stranded fossil fuel assets鈥� impact on power plants鈥� CO2 emissions Daniel Morton Fri, 08/30/2024 - 15:00

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 2024, 15, 7517

Off

Traditional

White

The Green Paradox: How Stranded Assets are slowing down the Clean Energy Transition

Daniel Morton — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 20:44:57 +0000

The Green Paradox: How Stranded Assets are slowing down the Clean Energy Transition Daniel Morton Fri, 08/30/2024 - 14:44

Daniel Morton

Read the full paper here

As we transition to a clean energy economy many of the existing fossil-based industries have assets, such as oil and gas that is still in the ground and the associated infrastructure, that are going to be left behind. Instead of winding down the consumption of fossil fuels as we transition, demand is increasing, which is causing a rise in carbon emissions.

RASEI Fellow Don Grant (色视频下载), in collaboration with Tyler Hansen (Dartmouth College), Andrew Jorgenson (University of British Columbia), and Wesley Longhofer (Emory University), used a broad range of analyses on a worldwide dataset of power plant鈥檚 CO₂ emissions to explore this so-called Green Paradox.

One of the core pillars of the Paris Agreement laid out for the global transition to a clean energy economy is that a significant portion of the currently owned fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground, causing such assets to become 鈥榮tranded鈥�. Much of the research around how we make this critical transition assumes that the prospect of such stranded fossil fuel assets will compel actors to divest away from resources and infrastructures associated with high emissions and replace them with clean innovations that will form the foundation of a different way of generating energy. However, not everyone is so optimistic. A more pessimistic prediction warns that these high-carbon sunset industries, in coalition with sympathetic policy makers, and supportive financiers are acting in a more defensive mode and are actively resisting the energy transition. A key issue that apparently galvanizes all the stakeholders is the right of each country, and corporation, to extract as much profit as possible from the existing fossil reserves. Essentially to extract and profit from all the oil and gas, and not leave it in the ground.

鈥淲e have found that in anticipation of stronger climate policies many power plants are adopting what we might call a 鈥榰se it or lose it鈥� approach 鈥� they are burning fossil fuels as fast as possible while they still can. This has some real consequences for a countries ability to mitigate climate change in the future.鈥�

As more and more of the regulations and policies prescribed by the Paris Agreement come into action, fossil energy companies are not taking anticipatory action. Instead of divesting away from high-emission technologies in favor of more renewable energy sources, they are accelerating the extraction of fossil fuels, maximizing their profit before those resources are deemed worthless. 鈥淲e have found that in anticipation of stronger climate policies many power plants are adopting what we might call a 鈥榰se it or lose it鈥� approach 鈥� they are burning fossil fuels as fast as possible while they still can. This has some real consequences for a countries ability to mitigate climate change in the future.鈥� explains Don Grant.

While several previous studies have explored the theoretical factors that are driving these decisions, this is the first empirical study to explore how this acceleration in asset extraction impacts the pollution level of downstream consumers, such as power plants, in anticipation of stronger climate policies. It required a team that brought together various perspectives to tackle these questions, Grant explains a little more about how the team came together 鈥淎ndrew Jorgenson and Wesley Longhover, are both sociologists and we have worked together for close to a decade looking at super polluting power plants. We recently wrote a book called Super Polluters. We brought in Tyler Hanson, an economist, because he recently published some very interesting work on stranded assets. When we started to ask questions about stranded assets, we knew that we needed to go outside our discipline and tap into the expertise of an economist.鈥� By bringing in the economist鈥檚 perspective for this research the team was able to develop an understanding of how to both theorize the stranded assets and how to measure them. This approach provides the first study that can offer some empirical evidence to begin to resolve the debate around the green paradox.

This has been hard to analyze since data on power plants鈥� CO₂ emissions have been lacking. The team constructed a global dataset that contains information from nearly 12,000 individual power plants in operation in 2009 and 2018, including their CO₂ emissions, technical specifications, and environmental characteristics. Those included in the study were responsible for 88% of the world鈥檚 electricity-based CO₂ emissions. With this comprehensive dataset in hand two hypotheses around the green paradox were tested.

Power plants will pollute at higher levels in countries with more at-risk fossil fuel reserves because these countries are more likely to exercise regulatory leniency to soften the otherwise disruptive effects of stranded assets on their economy (government revenues, employment, and energy security).
Assuming that most power plants are locked into long-term fossil fuel contracts and many of the fuels that they have acquired are from their host country, then in countries with more at-risk assets, power plants will have a vested interest in shifting the processing of fossil fuels forward to capitalize on their purchase of coal, oil, and gas, and use their plant equipment while they still can.

Consistent with both predictions, their findings indicate that not only do power plants release more CO₂ in countries where more fossil fuel assets are in jeopardy of being stranded, but in those same countries, plants also operate at closer to full capacity, causing them to emit CO₂ at even higher levels. 鈥淚magine that you have a cell phone contract that lasts for 12 months,鈥� suggests Don, 鈥渁nd you get 10,000 h, or a certain amount of data in that contract. Then you鈥檙e told that the company is going to fold sometime in the near future. What would you do? You would use them up.鈥�

鈥淭his is a business-driven decision, and until countries put together policies to compensate fossil fuel industries and utilities for stranded assets, one might expect this process to continue鈥�.

Resolving the debate around the green paradox and its societal impacts needs to happen soon. 鈥淐ompanies are doubling down. Until now it has been something of a conceptual debate and this is the first study that can offer some empirical evidence to begin to resolve this dispute鈥� explains Don. There is more at stake than just resolving a debate. 鈥淭his is a business-driven decision, and until countries put together policies to compensate fossil fuel industries and utilities for stranded assets, one might expect this process to continue鈥�.

By exploring the empirical evidence behind the Green Paradox, this research moves the debate forward. With proof that this is happening, we must now think about how to influence this situation. 鈥淲e are just beginning to figure out how you might address this, and researchers are starting to tackle these questions鈥� says Don. A critical part in accelerating an equitable clean energy transition is making sure that countries who are dependent on such stranded assets are compensated and incentivized. Otherwise, they will extract every last drop of their fossil fuels.

Off

Traditional

White

BES: Super Polluters

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 07:00:00 +0000

BES: Super Polluters Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 02/20/2021 - 00:00

February 20, 2021

Download the Flyer

Power plants have paved the road to achieving the standard of living that modern societies demand and the social and economic infrastructure on which they depend. Yet their indispensability has allowed them to evade responsibility for their vast carbon emissions. In a new book, Super Polluters, Don Grant, Professor of Sociology at the 色视频下载, and two co-authors offer a groundbreaking global analysis of carbon pollution caused by the generation of electricity. They examine which plants discharge the lion鈥檚 share of carbon pollution, the paradoxical effects of efficiency, the social conditions that shape plants鈥� emissions and the effectiveness of local policies and citizen activism. Especially important, they show that targeting a small subset of hyper-polluting power plants could go a long way toward reducing the CO₂emissions of countries鈥� electricity sectors as shown in the table below.

Grant and his colleagues note that one reason climate change activists have struggled to mobilize action is the difficulty of identifying specific villains to blame for the escalating threat. While admitting targeting hyper-emitting power plants is not a panacea, they argue 鈥渢he fact that we now have just over a decade to bring climate change under control means that society must zero in on the worst of its polluters.鈥�

Don Grant is professor of sociology at the 色视频下载, where he is also a fellow at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute and director of the Social Innovation and Care, Health, and Resilience programs. Andrew Jorgenson is professor and chair of sociology and professor of environmental studies at Boston College. Wesley Longhofer is associate professor of organization and management and academic director of social enterprise in the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Grant, Jorgenson, and Longhofer have been working on this project, funded by the National Science Foundation, since 2013. Formally trained as sociologists, each researcher brought a distinctive specialty with Grant鈥檚 primary area of expertise being the sociology of organizations. The research team has received additional NSF funding to continue their collaborative project. Next, they will be examining 鈥済reen stars鈥� in the electricity-generating sector and how energy and climate policies affect power plants鈥� environmental performance in an age of experimentalist governance.

New Book from Columbia University Press - Super Polluters: Tackling the World鈥檚 Largest Sites of Climate-Disrupting Emissions

Get 20% off paperback using this code (CUP20) at this site - https://cup.columbia.edu/book/super-polluters/9780231192170

Don Grant | 色视频下载

Off

Traditional

White