Tim Cockerill

Illustrative national scale scenarios of environmental and human health impacts of Carbon Capture and Storage.

Integrated Assessment, and the development of strategies to reduce the impacts of air pollution, has tended to focus only upon the direct emissions from different sources, with the indirect emissions associated with the full life-cycle of a technology often overlooked. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) reflects a number of new technologies designed to reduce CO2 emissions, but which may have much broader environmental implications than greenhouse gas emissions. This paper considers a wider range of pollutants from a full life-cycle perspective, illustrating a methodology for assessing environmental impacts using source-apportioned effects based impact factors calculated by the national scale UK Integrated Assessment Model (UKIAM). Contrasting illustrative scenarios for the deployment of CCS towards 2050 are presented which compare the life-cycle effects of air pollutant emissions upon human health and ecosystems of business-as-usual, deployment of CCS and widespread uptake of IGCC for power generation. Together with estimation of the transboundary impacts we discuss the benefits of an effects based approach to such assessments in relation to emissions based techniques.

The impact of the “Shale Gas Revolution” on the United Kingdom electricity generation outlook

© Common Ground, Henry Sithole, Timothy Cockerill, Ray Edmunds, Kevin J. Hughes, Lin Ma, Richard Porter, and Mohamed Pourkashanian All Rights Reserved.The prospects of UK shale gas development and its role in the energy mix has generated contradictory views. Its inclusion in electricity generation is anticipated to help mitigate the grid carbon emissions. However, there is fear that a shale gas “revolution” might distract policy commitments on the development of low carbon technologies. Others argue that a shale gas “boom” could potentially create a “lock-in-effect” on the gas generation infrastructure, thus, further exacerbating the burden on carbon emissions. The uncertainty over the future role of shale gas is worsened by lack of clarity and conflicting estimates on the potential gas resource and reserves. In the midst of these uncertainties, this paper seeks to examine transition pathways incorporating shale gas and their implications on electricity sector decarbonisation and energy security objectives.