EU Study Shows Potential CO2 Burial @ 50 Billion Tons/Yr. By 2050

[hatrack]

OSLO - The European Union could bury 30 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases by 2050 to help slow global warming, more than five times the bloc's current annual emissions, results of a study due out next week show.

"There is an enormous potential," for capturing and burying the gases released by burning fossil fuels in power plants and factories, Frederic Hauge, head of the Norwegian environmental pressure group Bellona, told Reuters. He said that a group including industry, European Commission experts, researchers and greens would meet on Sept. 12-13 in Brussels to adopt the study with the non-binding vision that the EU could bury 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by the middle of the century.

"We have calculated that the EU will take the lead," he said. "Overall we think that around 240 billion tonnes could be buried worldwide by 2050. And this could really be huge in countries like China."

World emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, from human activities are about 25 billion tonnes a year -- the United States accounted for 7.1 billion in 2004 and the 25 member states of the European Union 5.4 billion.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38037/story.htm

[ThomCat]

1. That's good. It's awesome to see some strategies

for dealing with global warming. I hope they find more, and I hope they implement these fast enough and thoroughly enough to do some good.

But I wonder what the unforseen environmental impact will be.