The Exergy of the Earth and its Mineral Resources - Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth's Mineral Resources - page 342

Table 11.18 Characteristics of stabilisation scenarios and the resulting long-term equilib-
rium global average temperature rise with respect to pre-industrial values. Based on IPCC
(2007a)

Category CO 2 conc. CO 2 -eq conc. Peaking year

for CO 2 emis-
sions

Global aver. temp.

C

ppm ppm year

I 350-400 445-490 2000-2015 2.0-4.0

II 400-440 490-535 2000-2020 2.4-2.8

III 440-485 535-590 2010-2030 2.8-3.2

IV 485-570 590-710 2020-2060 3.2-4.0

V 570-660 710-855 2050-2080 4.0-4.9

VI 660-790 855-1130 2060-2090 4.9-6.1

obtained from the IPCC Third Assessment Report (IPCC, 2007a) and shown in
Table 11.18.
Figs. 11.1 to 11.3 show the exergy loss of the different fuels as a function of
atmospheric CO 2 concentration.
As can be seen from Figs. 11.1 to 11.3, greater exergy losses occur as temperature
and CO 2 concentration increase. The maximum exergy decrease is around 0.4% in
the worst case scenario. Indeed amongst all fuels, coal, especially anthracite, is the
most sensitive to changes in CO 2 concentrations. Natural gas follows coal, while
fuel-oils are the least affected.

Fig. 11.1 Exergy decrease of the different types of coal as a function of atmospheric CO 2 con-
centration (Valero D. and Valero, 2012)