Keywords: Carbon Footprint, Environmental Sustainability Assessment, Fossil Fuels, Combustion, Environmental
Burden
1. Introduction
Climate change is a global problem that affects the whole
planet as one. Emissions from different countries contribute
the same to this environmental aspect defined as
the effect of anthropogenic emissions which enhance the
radioactive forcing of the atmosphere, causing the temperature
at the earth’s surface to rise [1]. Several gases
have influence in this impact, being carbon dioxide the
main contributor and the reference to measure the effect
of the rest gases. Developed countries are especially
concerned about reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
as it was established in the Kyoto protocol and further
European policies for energy [2].
Energy demand and transport needs are the origin of
the main amount of GHG. Reductions in these two activities
are called to be the way to achieve the levels
agreed internationally. 62% of the world electricity
comes from hard coal (HC) and natural gas (NG) combustion
and in the case of Spain 55% [3] so in this study
both electricity generation technologies carbon footprint
(CFP) are compared. Just environmental aspects would
be taken into account but the framework that justifies the
comparison is much wider since the use of one raw material
or another has social and economic implications.
Last year trends in the Spanish electric mix show a
growth in the use of natural gas and a decrease in the use
of coal. This fact has clear social consequences due to the
decrease in the employment of regional mining sector,
very important in the north of Spain. Impacts of unemployment
could be measured on society as a whole or on
the individual persons as proposed by Jorgensen et al. [4].
Social life cycle assessment is still in his earlier phases
and the trade-offs with the environmental dimensions are
not clear enough. Furthermore European policies have
the objective of supply security and in the case of Spain
coal is an important source since it is the only raw material
present in the country, being dependent from abroad
for all other combustibles.
Environmental sustainability concerns the environmental
impact of inputs (resource usage) and outputs
(emissions, effluents and waste) of the process under
study and is evaluated by indexes to facilitate and support
decision making and policies. They can be used to
compare different technologies because they reduce the
complexity in the analysis taking into account an important
number of chemical substances. CFP is a subset of
the environmental sustainability indexes that measure all
GHG produced (global warming potential impact category)
and has units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide
equivalent. It has been largely discussed the use of this
index to decision making processes because it restricts
the information and can lead to misleading interpretation
of data. Is global warming (GW) the main global impact?
Keywords: Carbon Footprint, Environmental Sustainability Assessment, Fossil Fuels, Combustion, EnvironmentalBurden1. IntroductionClimate change is a global problem that affects the wholeplanet as one. Emissions from different countries contributethe same to this environmental aspect defined asthe effect of anthropogenic emissions which enhance theradioactive forcing of the atmosphere, causing the temperatureat the earth’s surface to rise [1]. Several gaseshave influence in this impact, being carbon dioxide themain contributor and the reference to measure the effectof the rest gases. Developed countries are especiallyconcerned about reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissionsas it was established in the Kyoto protocol and furtherEuropean policies for energy [2].Energy demand and transport needs are the origin ofthe main amount of GHG. Reductions in these two activitiesare called to be the way to achieve the levelsagreed internationally. 62% of the world electricitycomes from hard coal (HC) and natural gas (NG) combustionand in the case of Spain 55% [3] so in this studyboth electricity generation technologies carbon footprint(CFP) are compared. Just environmental aspects wouldbe taken into account but the framework that justifies thecomparison is much wider since the use of one raw materialor another has social and economic implications.Last year trends in the Spanish electric mix show agrowth in the use of natural gas and a decrease in the useof coal. This fact has clear social consequences due to thedecrease in the employment of regional mining sector,very important in the north of Spain. Impacts of unemploymentcould be measured on society as a whole or onthe individual persons as proposed by Jorgensen et al. [4].Social life cycle assessment is still in his earlier phasesand the trade-offs with the environmental dimensions arenot clear enough. Furthermore European policies havethe objective of supply security and in the case of Spaincoal is an important source since it is the only raw materialpresent in the country, being dependent from abroadfor all other combustibles.Environmental sustainability concerns the environmentalimpact of inputs (resource usage) and outputs(emissions, effluents and waste) of the process understudy and is evaluated by indexes to facilitate and supportdecision making and policies. They can be used tocompare different technologies because they reduce thecomplexity in the analysis taking into account an importantnumber of chemical substances. CFP is a subset ofthe environmental sustainability indexes that measure allGHG produced (global warming potential impact category)and has units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxideequivalent. It has been largely discussed the use of thisindex to decision making processes because it restrictsthe information and can lead to misleading interpretationของข้อมูล คือภาวะโลกร้อน (GW) ผลกระทบหลักสากล
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