Energy, CO2, and Climate Change: Challenges for China

Meeting the world's energy needs and at the same time reducing emissions of greenhouse gases is one of the grand challenges humans must face in this century. China's situation illustrates the magnitude of the challenge as well as any place in the world. Its economy is growing rapidly, energy shortages abound, and a primary source of energy is coal. This talk reviews China's current and projected future emissions of carbon dioxide, examines alternatives for meeting the combined goals of increasing energy supply and reducing emissions, and describes research underway to provide more options to meet the challenges China faces.

Lynn Orr focuses his research activities on the interactions of fluid phase behavior with multiphase flow in porous media, the design of gas injection processes for enhanced oil recovery, and C0₂ sequestration in subsurface porous media. In August 2005, Dr. Orr and the Global Climate and Energy Project hosted an international conference at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, to explore opportunities for collaborative research to integrate advanced coal technologies with CO₂ capture and storage in China.

This series is co-sponsored with the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University.