Switch to natural gas may not slow climate change
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Xinhua, September 27, 2011
Switch from burning coal to natural gas would fail to significantly slow down climate change, at least for short term, a joint Australia and U.S. study concluded on Monday.
Tom Wigley, adjunct professor at Australia's University of Adelaide and a senior research associate at U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) conducted the study to examine how fossil fuel burning affects Earth's climate.
Wigley calls the transition between coal and natural gas a " double-edged sword", because while coal use causes warming through emission of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, it also releases comparatively large amounts of sulfates and other particles that, although detrimental to the environment, cool the planet by blocking incoming sunlight.
At the same time, there are an uncertainty over the amount of methane, which is an especially potent greenhouse gas, that leaks from natural gas operations.
"On one hand, it (coal burning) would make the world a little warmer but on the other hand, it would reduce the effects of pollution," Wigley said in a statement released on Monday.
The study said that a worldwide, partial shift from coal to natural gas would slightly accelerate climate change through to at least 2050, even if no methane leaked from natural gas operations, and through to as late as 2140 if there were substantial leaks.
After that, the greater reliance on natural gas would begin to slow down the increase in global average temperature, but only by a few tenths of a degree.
"Relying more on natural gas would reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, but it would do little to help solve the climate problem, " Wigley said. "It would be many decades before it would slow down global warming at all, and even then it would just be making a difference around the edges."
Wigley said his findings do not mean that coal is better than gas, just that there are many factors other than carbon dioxide that should be considered when deciding climate policy.
The study will be published in the peer-reviewed journal Climatic Change Letters in October.
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