There is an excellent book and website called Project Drawdown which estimates the carbon impact of a whole range of activities. The purpose of the project is to find the most important actions we can take collectively to reduce the global carbon footprint. It’s a great resource for anyone who wants to see a simple ranking of the most important climate actions and an excellent starting point for anyone interested in doing something about climate change.
There are two scenarios on the website, Scenario 1 corresponds to 2 degrees C of warming by 2100, and Scenario 2 corresponds to 1.5 degrees C. Because I think it’s more realistic, I’m going to use the rankings in Scenario 1.
Of the top ten solutions listed, several of them are largely out of our control, but there are ways we can contribute to most of them.
Here they are, the ten most impactful actions we can take to combat climate change.
10. Distributed Solar PV – Literally what I do in my day job. This is industry jargon for “putting solar panels on your property.” Not everyone owns property, but there is something called community solar which allows people to buy into solar arrays even if they don’t have a good site or live in an apartment. For many people investing in solar can be both a financial and an environmental boon. Total impact: 27.98 gigatons of CO2.
9. Improved Clean Cookstoves – For those of us in the developed world, this may not be obvious, but hundreds of millions of people (mostly women and girls) use wood or other biomass like cow poop to cook their food. This has an enormous public health and climate impact. In fact, indoor air pollution from dirty stoves is one of the largest public health problems among the world’s poorest people. And we can all have an impact by donating to organizations like the Clean Cooking Alliance. Better cookstoves are a win for public health, for education (girls often gather fuel instead of going to school), for women’s equality, AND for the climate. Total impact: 31.34 gigatons of CO2.
8. Utility Scale Solar Photovoltaics – This is just jargon for big solar farms. The most important thing you can do here is get political. Vote for politicians to implement pro-solar policies. These kinds of decisions are made by legislatures and utility commissions. The policies around them are a bit complex, but organizations like SEIA and Vote Solar have voter guides that typically cover every state and federal election. If you’re outside the USA, then there is likely a solar industry association of some type in your home country that does the same. Also, I happen to work in the solar industry so feel free to reach out if you ever have questions. Total impact: 42.32 gigatons of CO2.
7. Alternative Refrigerants – This is another area where public policy is key. We need companies and government working in tandem to develop new refrigerants at scale and to phase out old ones like fluorinated gases. Unfortunately, I’m skeptical this will ever get much attention during an election and it’s unlikely to be at the top of anyone’s mind. Total impact: 43.53 gigatons of CO2
6. Onshore Wind Turbines – Wind energy is a mature industry here in the USA. Many states, particularly those in the middle of the country like Iowa and Texas, are already getting a large share of their power from wind. If left to its own devices, the wind industry would continue to grow over time, but in order for it to grow fast enough to hit our climate goals, we need robust public policy. The biggest danger here is politicians getting in the way or lying about wind energy, like many Republicans did after the Texas deep freeze of 2021. Total impact: 47.21 gigatons of CO2.
5. Tropical Forest Restoration – I assume that few of my readers currently live in the tropics. We all know that deforestation in places like Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Brazil is a serious issue. These are also some of the poorest places on Earth, and the Tropics are in danger of getting too hot for human habitation over the next century. So, restoration of tropical forests has the potential for numerous positive impacts. The best way we can help is by giving money to organizations that fight against deforestation and empower local communities. Unfortunately, violence against environmental activists in these countries is not uncommon, and many people have been killed in recent years when they try to protect these forests. We should not turn a blind eye to this, not just for the climate, but for basic human decency. Total impact: 54.45 gigatons of CO2.
4. Refrigerant Management – Fortunately, this one is already moving in the right direction. In 2016, 170 countries met in Kigali, Rwanda to amend the Montreal Protocol, one of the most successful international treaties of all time. Countries will phase out the use of CFCs and HFCs over the next decade or so (which richer countries starting first and poorer countries going later). Total impact: 57.75 gigatons of CO2.
3. Plant-Rich Diets – This includes vegan and vegetarian diets, but it also includes diets that have meat but in lower amounts. Americans and other rich people eat a lot more meat and dairy than most sedentary people in human history. By simply reducing the meat and dairy portion sizes, or eating vegetarian for several days a week, we can have a huge impact on public health and the climate. Total impact: 65.01 gigatons of CO2.
2. Health and Education for Girls – This is another area where we can have a lot of positive impacts, not just for the climate. The goal here is 12-13 years of school for every child on the planet, and access to high quality birth control for everyone. This policy will have by far the biggest impact on women and girls, who make up the majority of the human species and yet are denied access to healthcare and education across the planet. Gender equality is a moral imperative in its own right, we don’t need other justifications. However, nearly every social and environmental issue, including climate change, is exacerbated by gender inequality. The positive impacts from gender equality are honestly too numerous for me to list. There are a large number of organizations in this space, such as the Malala Fund. Total climate impact: 85.42 gigatons of CO2.
- Reduced food waste – In some ways this is the easiest thing for us to impact. We all waste food, especially in the United States, and we can all do a better job here. But food waste is not just about us forgetting something in the back of the fridge, it’s also about public policies that lead to crops rotting in the fields, and cultural practices that lead to edible food being discarded for its appearance. Food waste is a pretty complex topic, and it might make sense to start with a book like Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal. Total impact: 90.70 gigatons.
Some of these solutions may be surprising, since we tend to think of climate change solely through the lens of burning fossil fuels. But these solutions undermine just how simple, and complex, this problem is to address. I strongly recommend Project Drawdown to anyone who is interested in the full list. There are 82 solutions listed on the website. The book has a summary of each solution and it’s quite easy to understand. Rather than focusing on the negatives, there is a very solutions-oriented approach that presents climate as a complex but solvable issue.
That’s all for this week, stay warm and have a great weekend!
The Mangrove 