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Japan has ambitious plan to fight global warming
The Associated Press
Japan hopes to slash greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming with a plan to pump carbon dioxide into underground storage reservoirs instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, an official said Monday.
The proposal aims to bury 200 million tons of carbon dioxide a year by 2020, cutting the country's emissions by one-sixth, said Masahiro Nishio, an official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Introduced last month, the plan is still under study.
Underground storage of carbon dioxide underlines the new urgency felt by industrialized countries trying to rein in the effects of global warming. But capturing carbon dioxide from factory emissions and pressurizing it into liquid form, scientists can inject it into underground aquifers, gas fields or gaps between rock strata, safely keeping it out of the air.
Scientists have been studying the process for years, and an experimental project began in Canada in 2005. In the Canadian project - a joint effort by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Canadian government and private industry - carbon dioxide was piped from the Great Plains Synfuels plant in Beulah, N.D., where it is a byproduct of coal gasification, to the Weyburn oil field in Saskatchewan, Canada.
From 2004:U.S. Eyes Burying CO2 to Battle Climate Change
In a Wyoming oil field, researchers funded by the U.S. Department of Energy are experimenting with injecting carbon dioxide underground to keep it from entering the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming. But it's unclear if the greenhouse gas will stay below ground. NPR's Jeff Brady reports.
2005 Australia:Burying CO2 emissions would aid climateBurying carbon dioxide produced by Australia's power stations would cut the long-term costs of reducing greenhouse emissions, a new report suggests.
The study also found Australia is in a prime position to take advantage of the technology because of its high reliance on fossil fuels and an abundance of storage sites.
2005:Burying CO2 may curb global warming, but cost high
OSLO, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Burying heat-trapping gases emitted by power plants and factories could play a big role in fighting global warming but would be a costly fix needing strong government backing, a U.N. report said on Monday.
The survey by 100 experts said greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide can be filtered from chimneys of plants burning fossil fuels then piped and stored in disused mines or oilfields. The gases might also be dissolved in the oceans.
The hitch was the cost.
Electricity prices could typically rise by 25-80 percent if power plant operators, the most promising users, adopted the technology, according to the report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).