The Pros And Cons Of Climate Change

I. Introduction

The time of refusing to acknowledge climate change has come to an end. Every day there are a growing number of institutions, governments and private companies which recognize the socioeconomic risks that climate change poses on the future. As scientific research confirms the need for immediate action with regards to climate change, scientists and politicians alike are conflicted at what is the next best step forward. One proposal is sulfate aerosol injection into the stratosphere, a type of geoengineering which reflects solar radiation back into space and reduces the temperature of the Earth . Supporters argue that this is the most cost efficient and rapid method to cool the Earth. Meanwhile, critics of this Solar Radiation

Important considerations include additional CO2 emissions and the financial burden from having to use fossil fuels to make up for lost output, effect on the payback period of the project, decreased future investment and incentives. The additional burden of CO2 is the easiest metric to consider due to a large amount of data available regarding CO2 emissions. Given the current and projected 2015 solar energy capacity, these decreases in output will have only a slight effect on added CO2 emissions and the burden to deal with them. Assuming that lost solar output will be replaced by natural gas or coal generated electricity, Table 2 summarizes the resulting CO2 burden due to 3% output loss in PV and 20% output loss in CSP. Compared to 1722 and 1391 million metric tons of CO2 emitted due to coal and natural gas in 2013, respectively, the amount of additional CO2 burden as a result of decreased solar output does not seem significant. It is important to note, though, that this represents only the additional emissions in the US in one year. If solar power continues to grow internationally, the effect of additional CO2 and its costs can be enormous. A report on CSP market in Chile indicates the possibility of as much as 1 GW CSP capacity over the next three years , with a projected 13,000 GWh production by the year 2024. Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain and others have expressed strong interest in CSP, and are moving forward with plans for 25 GW, 1 GW, and 2 GW CSP capacity in the next decade . With billions of invested dollars at stake and increasing global GW capacity, a 20% output loss and the additional CO2 emitted will no longer be trivial. In fact, proceeding with SSAI could impact future interest and investment in solar energy, particularly CSP