A worldwide analysis of stranded fossil fuel assets' impact on power plants' CO<sub>2</sub> emissions.
other
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39209921.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-52036-8 and PMC identifier 11362600.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Will power plants emit less or more CO<sub>2</sub> in anticipation of stronger climate policies that would strand fossil fuel reserves? Here, using a worldwide data source on individual power plants' CO<sub>2</sub> emissions and the value of countries' at-risk fossil fuel assets, we show that between 2009 and 2018, plants emitted more CO<sub>2</sub> in countries where more assets would be devalued under a 1.5 °C scenario, which we theorize is due to these countries' regulatory leniency and plants' vested interest in long-term fossil fuel contracts. Although the extra amount of carbon emitted each year trigged by imperiled assets is relatively small, it would exhaust a sizable portion of the electricity sector's remaining carbon budget when added up over time. This is especially true in the U.S. and Russia where up to 16% and 12% of their budgets, respectively, could be spent within ten years due solely to the stranded asset effect.