Low carbon economy

From Green Wiki

Low-Carbon Economy or Low Fossil Fuel Economy is a popular term that refers to an economy which has a minimal output of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere (especially Carbon Dioxide). Recently, most of scientific and public opinion has come to the conclusion there is an unreasonable accumulation of GHGs; our species is to blame for this accumulation, and the over-concentrations of these gases will fundamentally change our climate dangerously in the foreseeable future. Globally implemented Low fossil fuel economies therefore, are proposed as a means to avoid catastrophic climate change, and as a precursor to an ideal zero-carbon economy.

Nuclear Power, or, the proposed strategies of Carbon capture and storage (CCS) have been proposed as the primary means to achieve a low carbon economy while continuing to exploit non-renewable resources; there is concern, however, with the matter of spent-nuclear-fuel storage, and the uncertainty of costs and time needed to successfully implement CCS worldwide and with guarantees that the stored emissions will not leak into the biosphere. Alternatively, many have proposed renewable energy should be the main basis of a LCE, but, they have their associated problems of high-cost and inefficiency; this is changing, however, since investment and production have been growing significantly in recent times. Furthermore, regardless of the effect to the biosphere by GHG emissions, the growing issue of peak oil may also be reason enough for a transition to an LCE.

The aim of a LCE is to integrate all aspects of itself from its manufacturing, agriculture, transportation and power-generation etc. around technologies that produce energy and materials with little GHG emission; and thus, around populations, buildings, machines and devices which use those energies and materials efficiently, and, dispose of or recycle its wastes so as to have a minimal output of GHGs. Furthermore, it has been proposed that to make the transition to an LCE economically viable we would have to attribute a cost(per unit output) to GHGs through means such as emissions trading and/or a carbon tax.