Climate Change And Energy Options For A Sustainable Future

'This book could not be more timely — published after a year that saw the costliest slew of weather disasters in history along with one of the deadliest pandemic, the emergence and spread of which is linked to climate change ... This book will be a valuable resource for scientists, policy makers but also educators and especially a young generation of readers who want to be informed citizens shaping the right choices for their local communities but also as cosmopolitan citizens of the world.'Journal of Indian Physics AssociationThe signs of global warming can be seen everywhere — hotter summers, frequent heavy rains, prolonged droughts, more severe forest fires, fiercer storms (including snow storms) and cyclones, as well as melting polar ice caps. Our indiscriminate actions are raising the spectre of millions of climate refugees who are victims of battles for water, crops, fish, and so on. It is poignant that the poorer countries, that are the least equipped to face these calamities have contributed the least to global warming, but are the worst hit.Only a concerted effort from the entire world by a rapid transition to renewable, clean and green energy sources, while checking wastage, deforestation and pollution, and a genuine adjustment in lifestyles towards moderation can avert the Earth, the only habitable planet we know, from turning into a hothouse.

The combined edition of 2009-2010 of the international and interdisciplinary Summer Academy proceedings sheds light on major challenges in the fi ld of energy and the environment: climate policy, renewable energy and grid related questions. The collection of articles begins with an overview of efforts in the field of international climate policy and development, such as the United Nations' CDM (Clean Development Mechanism). It goes on to study the regional particularities of climate and environmental policy-making, using case studies from Europe, China and Africa. Finally, the proceedings consider the important part that energy will play in curbing climate change. After all, this sector is the major contributor of CO2 emissions and therefore the major cause of global warming. Transitional energy sources like gas will be discussed, and the necessary adjustments to our current energy infrastructure will be analyzed in case studies on grids from South America and Europe.

This book is a call to action on climate change, filled with clear and detailed information on the strategies we need to adopt to ensure a sustainable future for the planet. Unlike other books on the subject, it brings together both the technology and policy issues to provide a truly interdisciplinary approach. Mark Diesendorf provides a guide to our future energy options, outlining the enormous recent changes in the energy sector in Australia and internationally. Diesendorf argues that we now have the technologies needed to transform our fossil - fuel based energy systems into an ecologically sustainable one, based on the efficient use of renewable energy. All we need is the political will to do so.

Future Energy: Improved, Sustainable and Clean Options for Our Planet, Third Edition provides scientists and decision-makers with the knowledge they need to understand the relative importance and magnitude of various energy production methods in order to make the energy decisions necessary for sustaining development and dealing with climate change. The third edition of Future Energy looks at the present energy situation and extrapolates to future scenarios related to global warming and the increase of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This thoroughly revised and updated edition contains over 40 chapters on all aspects of future energy, with each chapter updated and expanded by expert scientists and engineers in their respective fields. Provides readers with an up-to-date overview of available energy options, both traditional and renewable, as well as the necessary tools needed to make informed decisions Covers a wide spectrum of future energy resources presented in a single book with chapters written by experts from each particular field Includes many new chapters that cover topics on conventional oil and fossil fuels, a new section on energy storage, and a look at new energy

This volume presents an in-depth analysis of climate change problems and discusses the proliferation of renewable energy worldwide—in conjunction with such important questions as social justice and economic growth, providing an interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development. Exploring various responses to human-induced climate change, the book offers a critical reflection on climate change and clean energy and highlights the fundamental problems of international energy justice and human rights. Examining these and other climate-related issues from legal, business, political, and scientific perspectives, the volume also analyzes the impact of economic factors and policies on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The world is undergoing major transitions due to three driving forces—population changes, climate changes, and energy resource constraints—making it essential for us to move toward sustainability in the implementation of projects and programs as well as our everyday life. Real sustainability exists where there is a balance between population and energy usage and a stable climate—global equilibrium. Designed for program and portfolio managers and senior planners, Sustainable Program Management provides essential information on the three major driving forces of the coming decades and presents options to assist us in moving toward a sustainable future. This book offers a unique approach to accommodating the three new constraints of population change, climate change, and energy resources as impacts on programs and portfolios. It presents them in the form of overlays, which facilitate planning by considering the effects of these additional constraints on a program, along with schedule, budget, and performance constraints. The overlays summarize the book’s extensive analyses of these global challenges. The book is divided into sections on population change, climate change, and energy resource constraints and provides background information and overlays for each one. The author discusses scenarios, possible solutions, and probable outcomes, which provide the basis for evaluating the risks and the sustainability considerations involved. The final section of the text addresses planning for real sustainability and describes six pathways toward a sustainable system. This practical book familiarizes readers with these new global challenges to program management and provides a basis for developing sustainable and successful programs.

This thoroughly revised and updated third edition focuses on the utilization of sustainable energy and mitigating climate change, serving as an introduction to physics in the context of societal problems. A distinguishing feature of the text is the discussion of spectroscopy and spectroscopic methods as a crucial means to quantitatively analyze and monitor the condition of the environment, the factors determining climate change, and all aspects of energy conversion. This textbook will be invaluable to students in physics and related subjects, and supplementary materials are available on a companion website http://www.nat.vu.nl/environmentalphysics Instructor support material is available at http://booksupport.wiley.com

The age-old accumulated knowledge on the science of global climate change, visible evidences and advances in research findings on adverse impacts of these changes on ecology, human & animal life, energy and economy necessitates a proper documentation of these events to guide our future options, alternate strategies and long- term policies to be evolved on abatement of the declining trend of climate and its stabilization in order to save the planet from further devastation. Global review of the scientific literature on the subject, their careful scrutiny and analysis also calls for creation of deeper awareness, appreciation and understanding of the interrelationship between the desirability of reversing the processes of climate change as well as building simultaneously the concept of Sustainable energy development to bear upon its impact on the former processes. The book on ``Global Climate change and Sustainable Energy Development`` seeks to harmonize the two apparently conflicting approaches. The book, inter alia covers a glossary of useful and appropriate technical terminologies in the wide-ranging areas of Global climate, Emission Trading, Energy Security, Sustainable Energy Development and allied areas with appropriate referencing. The book also provides valuable and a plethora of updated information on the scientific basis of global climate change, the parameters to measure their impacts, various policy and programe measures to abate climate change and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, the proactive roles of International funding and cooperation agencies to supplement the regional and domestic efforts, exploring the nexus between climate and energy security to help evolve strategy for sustainable energy development as a major global initiative in future.