Fighting global warming by climate engineering: Is the Earth radiation management and the solar radiation management any option for fighting climate change?

The best way to reduce global warming is, without any doubt, cutting down our anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. But the world economy is addict to energy, which is mainly produced by fossil carbon fuels. As economic growth and increasing world population require more and more energy, we c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Renewable & sustainable energy reviews 2014-03, Vol.31, p.792-834
Main Authors: Ming, Tingzhen, de_Richter, Renaud, Liu, Wei, Caillol, Sylvain
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air pollution
Applied sciences
Carbon
Clear-sky radiative cooling
Climate change
Downdraft evaporative tower
Earth radiation management
Economics
Energy
Exact sciences and technology
Fossil fuels
Geoengineering
Global warming
Greenhouse effect
Heat pipe
Management
Natural energy
Solar energy
Solar radiation
Solar updraft chimney
Thermal shortcuts
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Summary:The best way to reduce global warming is, without any doubt, cutting down our anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. But the world economy is addict to energy, which is mainly produced by fossil carbon fuels. As economic growth and increasing world population require more and more energy, we cannot stop using fossil fuels quickly, nor in a short term. On the one hand, replacing this addiction with carbon dioxide-free renewable energies, and energy efficiency will be long, expensive and difficult. On the other hand, meanwhile effective solutions are developed (i.e. fusion energy), global warming can be alleviated by other methods. Some geoengineering schemes propose solar radiation management technologies that modify terrestrial albedo or reflect incoming shortwave solar radiation back to space. In this paper we analyze the physical and technical potential of several disrupting technologies that could combat climate change by enhancing outgoing longwave radiation and cooling down the Earth. The technologies proposed are power-generating systems that are able to transfer heat from the Earth surface to the upper layers of the troposphere and then to the space. The economical potential of some of these technologies is analyzed as they can at the same time produce renewable energy, thus reduce and prevent future greenhouse gases emissions, and also present a better societal acceptance comparatively to geoengineering.
ISSN:1364-0321
1879-0690
DOI:10.1016/j.rser.2013.12.032