Climate solution scenario from Climate Progress...

[Kevin]

Joe Romm at Climate Progress has updated his well-thought-out set of climate stabilization wedges for 2011:

http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/10/t ... o-450-ppm/

I don't agree with every piece, but overall, I think it is a well balanced and well-researched scenario package, using the effective climate stabilization wedges approach. And he thoughtfully throws in a few extra wedges, so you can leave out a few you don't like...

"In the basic solution, I have thrown in a some extra wedges since I have no doubt that everybody will find something objectionable in at least 2 of them. I have blogged on most of the solutions at length.

"This is what the entire planet must achieve:

1 wedge of albedo change through white roofs and pavement (aka “soft geoengineering) — see “Geoengineering, adaptation and mitigation, Part 2: White roofs are the trillion-dollar solution“
1 wedge of vehicle efficiency — all cars 60 mpg, with no increase in miles traveled per vehicle.
1 of wind for power — one million large (2 MW peak) wind turbines
1 of wind for vehicles –another 2000 GW wind. Most cars must be plug-in hybrids or pure electric vehicles.
3 of concentrated solar thermal (aka solar baseload)– ~5000 GW peak.
3 of efficiency — one each for buildings, industry, and cogeneration/heat-recovery for a total of 15 to 20 million GW-hrs. A key strategy for reducing direct fossil fuel use for heating buildings (while also reducing air conditioning energy) is geothermal heat pumps.
1 of solar photovoltaics — 2000 GW peak
1 wedge of nuclear power – 700 GW
2 of forestry — End all tropical deforestation. Plant new trees over an area the size of the continental U.S.
1 wedge of WWII-style conservation, post-2030 [this could well include dietary changes]

"Here are additional wedges that require some major advances in applied research to be practical and scalable, but are considered plausible by serious analysts, especially post-2030:

1 of geothermal plus ocean-based renewables (i.e. tidal, wave, and/or ocean thermal)
1 of coal with biomass cofiring plus carbon capture and storage — 400 GW of coal plus 200 GW biomass with CCS
1/2 to 1 wedge of cellulosic biofuels for long-distance transport and what little aviation remains in 2050 — using 8% of the world’s cropland [or less land if yields significantly increase or algae-to-biofuels proves commercial at large scale].
1 of soils and/or biochar– Apply improved agricultural practices to all existing croplands and/or “charcoal created by pyrolysis of biomass.” Both are controversial today, but may prove scalable strategies."

[Kevin]

And when Joe says...

"A key strategy for reducing direct fossil fuel use for heating buildings (while also reducing air conditioning energy) is geothermal heat pumps. "

I would first correct the term to ground-source heat pumps, a more descriptive term for what he means, and then, substitute for that with Passivhaus - type building energy re-engineering, which is more widely applicable and probably represents better performance in terms of both overall energy savings and overall cost-effectiveness. It's a really important new way of thinking.