Projects

The Global Roundtable on Climate Change believes that effective public and private support for demonstration projects can play a valuable role in expanding efforts to test the viability, efficacy and scalability of new methods to produce energy and mitigate carbon emissions. A great deal of important and practical research is also required on many related technological, economic and policy issues. To these ends, participants in the Roundtable and its working groups currently work on a number of projects that enjoy the general endorsement of the Roundtable. These currently include, but are not limited to:* 

• Global Task Force on Carbon Capture and Sequestration. The Earth Institute at Columbia University will convene a task force of experts drawn from industry, academia and the GROCC to promote commercial adoption of 10 power plants with carbon capture and storage technologies by 2015. The task force will focus on overcoming obstacles to deployment in the major coal producing regions of the world. 
  
  
• Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries. Deforestation represents an important source of carbon emissions. Countries participating in the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, in collaboration with interested GROCC participants and others, are undertaking efforts to demonstrate the utility and appropriateness of including mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol (and successor agreements) so that developing countries can receive appropriate financial incentives and emissions credits for preventing rainforest deforestation. 
  
  
• Solar-powered LED Lighting Solutions. Interested Roundtable participants are working together to explore mechanisms for increasing access to efficient, clean lighting for home, school and small-business use in developing countries.
  
  
• Geological Sequestration of Carbon in Basalt Deposits. Several Roundtable participants are working together to test the suitability of basalt deposits as a medium for geological sequestration of carbon, beginning with experiments in Iceland.
  
  
• Coal States Initiative. The Earth Institute's Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy has established a consortium of U.S. state government officials, energy companies and research universities, a group that includes GROCC participants, to work together to identify, discuss, and evaluate potential regulatory and policy approaches to help guide the continued use of coal in a carbon-constrained future. The initiative will address all aspects of de-carbonization with a focus on carbon capture and storage and advanced fossil fuel technologies.
  
  
• Energy Efficiency Network. The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, in collaboration with other GROCC participants, is examining the potential to establish a network of energy efficiency experts in order to facilitate the provision and dissemination of practical information relating to energy efficiency and how energy efficiency can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  
  
• Enhanced Soil Sequestration of Carbon. Experts affiliated with GROCC participants are undertaking research to evaluate core issues, methodologies, and potential projects for carbon emission reductions from agricultural practices and enhanced sequestration of carbon in soils.
  
  
• Policy Analysis Project: Examining Choices for Stabilization. This project, led by GROCC-affiliated experts in finance, energy and other areas, explores the life-cycle impacts, and the investment, insurance and policy implications of "stabilization wedges" proposed by Pacala and Socolow (2004) to support decision-making by financial institutions and policymakers. 

 

 

 

*The term, “general endorsement of the Roundtable" does not imply financial support for, participation in, endorsement of all aspects or outcomes, or a legal relationship to a specific project. Rather, it represents an acknowledgement that demonstration projects in these areas have the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. The order of this list carries no implications. Absence from the list does represent an opinion on the lack of importance of a given activity or issue-area.

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