A free market for CO2

In voting on April 16 against a delay in auctioning new CO2 emission quotas, the European Parliament has blunted the main weapon in the fight against global warming and scaled back Europe’s global ambitions a little more.

Europe has claimed for years to be in the vanguard of climate protection efforts. That’s over now. First, the 27 member states of the European Union refused to increase their joint target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And yesterday, on April 16, the European Parliament followed in their steps, rejecting he long overdue reform of the trade in emission rights.

There is little left of the former spirit of optimism and the will to do everything possible to leave future generations an environment worth living in. The parliamentary vote marks a turning point in European climate policy.

Ten years ago the Europeans were the first in the world to introduce the trade in carbon credits. It was a prestige project that tried to motivate companies, through market-based mechanisms, to invest in environmentally friendly technology and thus make climate protection both cheap and efficient. The project, though, has broken down.

        A glut of certificates

Entrepreneurs who invested in climate protection and trusted the promise were not rewarded, but punished. Emission certificates – that is, permits to churn out a certain amount of greenhouse gases – were practically never actually traded. The reason: there is a glut of them on the market. Companies that invested nothing in climate protection were able to carry on harming the environment without having to pay anything. Eventually, their storerooms ended up stuffed with certificates.

The chance to change this state of affairs is now gone. The MEPs voted against taking a certain number of certificates off the market, at least temporarily, and so to increase the price for emitting greenhouse gases; instead, the market value of the certificates is likely approaching zero. Climate-friendly investments are no longer worth the money. The major tool for climate protection has become unusable.

        Loss of an important ally

The responsibility for this disaster lies with the national capitals and with Brussels. For EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard the lost vote is an another piece of the puzzle in her unsuccessful policy. As Danish Minister for the Environment, she must have witnessed the failure of the international climate conference in Copenhagen when the states were unable to agree on minimal targets. And as European Commissioner, she failed to organise the necessary majorities to get a reasonably committed climate policy from the Europeans.

And because she lost her most important ally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Once celebrated as the “Climate Chancellor” because of her commitment, Merkel has gone quiet. Out of the interests of her coalition partner, she admits, Germany keeps mute in Brussels on the subject of climate change – and she also admits that a majority of members of her own party are now voting against climate projects as well. Germany’s pioneering role in the European climate is as far gone as Europe’s pioneering role in the world.

What is Shale Gas? How Does Fracking Work?

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Everywhere you can read about the shale gas rush in North Dakota, Texas, and Montana, all USA. USA is the largest producer of shale gas. Their shale gas production rose from 2000 to 2010 from 2 to 23 % overall gas production with the trend still rising [1].
How does hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling make natural gas trapped in shale rock formations financially feasible and accessible?

Shale Gas

Shale is a compressed fine-grained type of sedimentary rock. It was formed from mud silt, clay, and organic matter.

Shale gas is natural gas trapped within tiny pore spaces in shale formations. It is a hydrocarbon gas mixture. It consists mainly of methane. Other hydrocarbons are natural gas liquids (NGLs) like ethane, propane, and butane, and it also contains carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and hydrogen sulfide.

Horizontal Drilling and Fracking

Horizontal drilling allows drilling vertically several thousand meters (typically 6,000 m) deep and then turning 90 ° and drilling horizontally.

This makes it possible to operate multiple target zones from one drilling pad. It enlarges recoverable reserves and also productivity is significantly increased.

Hydraulic fracturing or fracking creates fractures in the shale formation to release the gas.
A fracturing fluid is pumped under high pressure (ca. 100 bar) into the drilling pipe to widen fractures in the rock or to create new ones.
The fluid consists mainly of water. It is usually mixed with quartz sand and three to twelve chemicals which amount for 0.5 to 2 %. The exact compositions are kept secret by the drilling companies.

Approximately 7–15 million L of water are used per well [2]. The sand holds the cracks open to increase the amount of natural gas that can be extracted. The chemicals may include gels or butyldiglycol (typical 0.2 L/t water) that increase the viscosity of the fracking fluid to better transport the sand, foaming agents like CO₂ and N₂, to transport the sand, biocides to prevent growth of bacteria at organic components, acids like HCl, acetic acid, formic acid or boric acid to disintegrate the minerals of the rock formations, and anti-corrosion agents to protect the site when acid is added.

Approximately 50–70 % of the water solution is recovered. The remaining water stays in the ground. The recovered water is contaminated with chemicals and salts from the rock formation. It is either transported or directly disposed in treatment facilities.

What to do With Shale Gas?

Cracking means to separate the large hydrocarbon chains of fossil fuels like natural gas and petroleum.

Naphtha is related to the price of oil, which is set by global supply and demand. The natural gas prices are regional.
Ethylene is the most widely used organic compound in chemical industry.
In the USA, over 85 % of ethylene is derived from natural gas. In Western Europe, over 70 % is derived from naphtha and other light distillated oil-based products.
Therefore, the shift toward more and lower-cost natural gas has benefitted the chemical industry in the USA.
Here, it currently costs $ 300 to produce 1 ton of ethylene. In Asia it costs $ 1,717 and in Saudi Arabia $ 455 [3, 4].

Concerns

Among the environmental concerns are that enormous amounts of water are used and the water is contaminated by the layers of earth it is pumped through as well as the fracking chemicals.
The cement to protect the ground water can get leaky with time, especially if acid water is used.
Radon and mercury are gases which can leak out from the shale formation. Other subsurface materials like lead or arsenic may be mobilized.
It cannot be excluded that fractures in rock formations grow in higher rock/soil formations or up to the surface.
Small earthquakes, so called induced seismicity, might result from changing the balance of forces in the rock formations.
There also are the concerns regarding energy politics, fearing that the hype can change the understanding that shale gas is a transition and not a replacement fuel.
Also methane, which is the main component of natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas. It is poorly understood what impact increasing shale gas industry has on the climate.

What is nature for me?

I remeber my early years when i didn`t appreciate nature and what it gives to people. Now when i am a grown person i see its meaningful part in everyone lives. I can`t imagine wolrd without greenery, though its impossible, one day science may become with crazy idea asserting that trees are not longer needed. I enjoy taking long walks in parks, no matter which season of the year is. Even during winter nature it`s amazing, seeing all trees covered with snow… stimulate my imagionation. Nature is one of the real things on earth, i can say it`s important for me as much as my closest friends and relatives. Nature gives me consolation when i am in need. Nature is life!