288 Energy andtransport for thefuture
and through switching to less carbon intensive fuels. Many studies in
industrialised countries indicate that savings of thirty per cent or more
could be made in the industrial sector at a net saving in overall economic
terms.^22
Given appropriate incentives, substantial savings of carbon dioxide
emissions can also be realised in the petrochemical industry that can
result in significant savings in cost. For instance, British Petroleum has
set up a carbon emissions trading system within the company that en-
courages the elimination of waste and leaks from their operations and
the application of technology to eliminate the venting of methane. In
its first three years of operation, 600 million US dollars were saved and
carbon emissions reduced to ten per cent below 1990levels.^23
There is also room for increased efficiency in large power stations
or other installations burning fossil fuels. The efficiency of coal-fired
power stations, for instance, has improved from about thirty-two per
cent, a typical value of twenty years ago, to about forty-two per cent
for a pressurised, fluidised bed combustion plant of today. Gas turbine
technology has also improved providing efficiency improvements such
that efficiencies approaching sixty per cent are reached by large modern
gas-turbine-combined cycle plants. Such improvements are very signif-
icant in environmental terms and it is important that means be provided
for the latest, most efficient technology to be available and attractive
to rapidly industrialising countries such as China and India. Substan-
tial further gains in overall efficiency can be realised by making sure
that the large quantities of low-grade heat generated by power stations
is not wasted but utilised, for instance in combined heat and power
(CHP) schemes. For such co-generation, the efficiencies attainable in
the use of the energy from combustion of the fuel are typically around
eighty per cent.
Table 11.4 provides summary estimates of the contributions differ-
ent sectors or industries could make to greenhouse gas reductions by
2010 and 2020 respectively. In total they amount to about half of the
emissions from these industries or sectors in 1990. Many of the contri-
butions summarised in the table and most of the proposals described in
this section fall into the category of ‘no regrets’ proposals – mentioned in
Chapter 9. In other words, not only do they lead tosubstantial reductions
in greenhouse gas emissions but they are good to do for other reasons –
they lead to increased efficiency, cost savings or improvements in per-
formance or comfort. It remains the case, however, that basic energy
is generally so cheap, that without both encouragement and incentives,
progress with the implementation of many of the proposals will be lim-
ited. Some of the policy instruments mentioned later can address this
issue.