Electricity production and greenhouse gases: facts and perspectives

Dear colleague,

We are pleased to announce the upcoming international Symposium "Electricity production and greenhouse gases: facts and perspectives" that will be held in Montréal in May of 1997. This event will bring together 150 to 200 participants involved in research on the scientific, socio-economic and political aspects of electricity production and related greenhouse gases emissions. In the following documents you will find the necessary information pertaining to this Symposium explaining both its aim and scope, presenting its organization and day-by-day program, and indicating how to register and submit a contribution. As you will notice in the following points, we have set the highest standard of quality for this Symposium. Hence, we do hope you'll join us in Montréal, in the spring of 1997, to enjoy our beautiful city while you participate in this stimulating and provocative meeting.

• The official languages of the Symposium are English and French. Hence, simultaneous translation for both languages will be available for all oral communications presented during the Symposium.

• We have now received formal confirmation from Chemosphere's Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Otto Hutzinger, of his agreement for Elsevier to publish all reviewed and accepted papers in a special issue of this Journal. The special issue will be published in early 1998.

• Reknown personalities active in the scientific, socio-economic, and political aspects of the greenhouse gases and energy reseach will take part in the Symposium. They will either act as keynote speakers presenting up-to-date topics of this debate, or as panelists to stimulate and drive the discussions emanating from the workshop sessions.
  (See the attached list of guest speakers and panelists).

We are thus pleased to invite you to participate in this event and do hope to see you among us next May in MontrŽal. Please transmit this information and extend this invitation to any person or organization that you think could be interested.

Yours sincerely,



Patrick Louchouarn
Symposium's Coordinator
Chaire de recherche en environnement HQ/CRSNG/UQAM








"Electricity production and greenhouse gases: facts and perspectives"

The production of electricity, with all its complex equipment and technologies, is among the major human activities that contribute to global environmental change. Land and sea alteration, acid rain production, land-flooding, and nuclear waste disposal have been well recognized as direct or indirect impacts of electricity production. More recently, the emissions of greenhouse gases, an additional "by-product" of electricity production, and their impact on the global climate have become a real concern. Even hydroelectric power, long considered a negligible source of greenhouse gases, seems to be an emitter of these atmospheric pollutants through the degradation of flooded organic matter. Hence, all electrical energy systems throughout their complete life-cycle have a potential for affecting the global climate and this impact must be included in their environmental evaluations. However, few comparative studies provide quantitative or qualitative estimates of greenhouse gases emissions from all major electricity systems and their policies of reduction.

In order to address the scientific, environmental, social and economic issues, the Chair of Environmental Research at Université du Québec à Montréal and Hydro-Québec have proposed an international symposium to be held in Montréal (Québec, Canada) in May of 1997. The symposium "Electricity production and greenhouse gases: Facts and perspectives" will focus on the synthesis of the present scientific knowledge on 1) comparative emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gases from conventional (thermal, hydrologic, nuclear) and alternative (wind, solar,etc.) electricity production systems, and 2) short- and long-term policies for the reduction of electricity-related emissions of greenhouse gases. The symposium will seek to involve electrical utilities as well as international organizations working on greenhouse gases research and policy-making.

The symposium is intended to facilitate interaction among scientists, policy-makers, and industry, who are actively engaged in scientific, social and political research on emissions of greenhouse gases. Plenary sessions involving invited keynote speakers representing the various perspectives of this debate will be held. Workshops will be organized to discuss specific questions to facilitate interaction among the diversity of interests represented at the symposium. Scientific contributions including field, laboratory and/or modeling studies will be encouraged as oral or poster presentations. The manuscripts of all accepted contributions will be published in a special issue of the international journal Chemosphere.

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