An energy tax to reduce the greenhouse effect: An all winners concept

This is based on a concept worked out by EUROSOLAR, an Association for the Solar Energy Age, of which Hermann Scheer is chairman and Wilfrid Bach is a member of the board.     

The generalized method of moments as applied to the generalized gamma distribution

The generalized gamma (GG) distribution has a density function that can take on many possible forms commonly encountered in hydrologic applications. This fact has led many authors to study the properties of the distribution and to propose various estimation techniques (method of moments, mixed moments, maximum likelihood etc.). We discuss some of the most important properties of this flexible distribution and present a flexible method of parameter estimation, called the generalized method of moments (GMM) which combines any three moments of the GG distribution. The main advantage of this general method is that it has many of the previously proposed methods of estimation as special cases. We also give a general formula for the variance of theT-year eventX _T obtained by the GMM along with a general formula for the parameter estimates and also for the covariances and correlation coefficients between any pair of such estimates. By applying the GMM and carefully choosing the order of the moments that are used in the estimation one can significantly reduce the variance ofT-year events for the range of return periods that are of interest.     

Impact of climate change on agriculture in Northern Norway and potential strategies for adaptation

This study evaluates the effects of climate change on agriculture in Northern Norway. It is based on downscaled climate projections for six different municipalities combined with interviews with farmers, advisors and administrative personnel in these municipalities. The projections document large climatic differences both between and within the different municipalities. The main predicted climatic changes include increasing temperatures and precipitation as well as increased frequency of certain types of extreme weather events. Despite challenges such as unstable winters, increased autumn precipitation and possibly more weeds and diseases, a prolongation of the current short growth season together with higher growth temperatures can give new opportunities for agriculture here. The impacts are expected to differ both within and between municipalities and will require tailored adaptive strategies. Most of these however should pose no difficulty implementing, having an agronomical basis that farmers are accustomed to cope with.     

Carbon capture and sequestration versus carbon capture utilisation and storage for enhanced oil recovery

There are 74 integrated carbon capture projects worldwide currently listed by the Global CCS Institute, including the few already running and those still at the identification, evaluation, definition or execution stage for operation by 2018. Significant funding programmes have recently been launched by the European Commission (NER300 in November 2011) and by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (CCS Commercialisation Programme in April 2012) for commercial demonstration projects leading to innovation across the CCS/CCUS technology chain to reduce energy system costs. In their calls for proposals, these programmes were open to both CCS and CCUS projects. However, there are significant technical and commercial differences between projects for enhanced oil recovery and those for permanent storage of carbon dioxide in saline aquifers or in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, the same way that there exist more complexities and limitations for offshore implementation. Such differences are accompanied by different levels of field verification of the various storage and utilisation concepts, with permanent sequestration having only a more recent history and smaller-scale implementation. In this scenario, the need for appropriate due diligence workflows and screening criteria to assess the technical viability and the deliverability of different CCS/CCUS projects remains crucial, vis-à-vis the high component costs, efficiency penalties, reservoir uncertainties and the many challenges related to full chain integration (from carbon dioxide capture to underground sequestration). Based on information in the public domain, this paper reviews the current status of offshore CCS/CCUS implementation worldwide and discusses screening criteria for use by governments, operators and investors alike.