ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS TO ENERGY DEVELOPMENT: IMPACT OF WATER RESOURCE LIMITATIONS on CLIMATE MITIGATION

Technological and policy strategies to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions will impact all key aspects of sustainability; (i) economic, (ii) environmental, and (iii) sociopolitical. Of the environmental aspects, the impacts of greenhouse gas mitigation strategies on water quantity and quality is poorly understood. Some strategies will increase water demand per unit energy, while others will decrease water requirements. If we accept that continued population growth will increase overall energy demand, and that global freshwater resources are already being utilized at unsustainable rates, then it becomes apparent that climate mitigation strategies must also reduce water demand for energy as well as impacts of energy on water quality. This paper will revisit the “Climate Stabilization Wedges” first proposed by Pacala and Socolow in 2004; and evaluate their impacts on water requirements for energy. We will present water impact “wedges” to augment the climate stabilization wedges; and identify which strategies are most likely to be sustainable from a water impacts perspective. We will also identify new wedges, not discussed by Pacala and Socolow, which address both the carbon and water aspects of sustainable energy production