Climate Change Reversal with these Top 10 Solutions

An interesting article from Green America featured the top 10 solutions to reverse climate change.

These are the top ten 100 solutions from Paul Hawken’s New York Times bestseller book, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.  

According to the article, when Paul Hawken and experts modelled and ranked these solutions to reverse climate change based on a “plausible scenario” – a conservative yet optimistic implementation of the answers—GHG atmospheric levels will begin to decline.

In a ” plausible scenario, ” combining all solutions will allow us to reduce carbon by 1,051 gigatons by 2050; however, according to Hawken, ramping up the solutions or scaling them beyond the conservative measures can sequester carbon by 1,442 gigatons by 2050.  

Below are his top 10 solutions according to their potential to reduce emissions over 30 years:

1. Refrigerant Management

Refrigerant Management tops the list. When countries completely phase out or replace ozone-depleting and earth-warming refrigerants, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), it can significantly reduce CO2 emissions and reduce damage to the environment.

2. Increased government subsidy and support

Increased government subsidies and support for onshore wind turbines can strengthen and increase the share of renewable energy in the power grid. They have the potential to be the least expensive source of electric capacity.

3. Reducing Food Waste

Reducing Food Waste by improving distribution and storage infrastructure in developing countries and willful food waste in higher-income countries because of the appearance of the produce. Education and proper food budgeting can be solutions to reduce food waste. Wasting food also squanders other resources like water, seeds, energy, hours of labour, and capital that go into food production.

4. Adopting a Plant-Rich Diet Food

The dairy industry is notorious for contributing to GHG emissions, so eating less meat or treating meat as a “delicacy” is a healthier option for you and the planet and lowers GHG emissions by up to 70%. Amplifying the health benefits of plant-rich diets can also encourage people to change their eating patterns.

5. Tropical Forest Restoration

Tropical forest loss due to rapid deforestation accounts for up to 19% of GHG emissions. Forest also serves as critical carbon sinks. Thankfully, calls for reforestation are happening worldwide, and 4.9 billion acres of the forest offer opportunities for restoration activities.

6. Educating Girls

In poor Asian countries, boys are prioritized over girls to get an education because of economic and cultural barriers. Young girls who are not in school are already put to work either domestically or subject to labour, making them vulnerable to all types of abuses. However, education can make profound changes in the lives of these young girls. Education gives them better work opportunities and gives them choices about when to marry or how many children to have, which impacts their health and the health of their family and reduces their risks of contracting diseases like HIV and malaria. Education also makes them resilient to climate change impacts and natural disasters. Supporting programs that put young girls in school can help them improve their lives so that they can contribute to society.

7. Family Planning

Access to culturally and affordable contraception, family planning, and reproductive health education can help developing countries avoid unplanned pregnancies. Giving them control over when to conceive and plan pregnancies affirms their basic human dignity and freedom, improves their resilience, and helps them cope and adapt to the uncertain effects of climate change.

8. Solar Farms

Large-scale arrays of thousands of solar panels that can operate at a utility-scale are cheaper to install than its rooftop alternative. Because it rotates, it is more efficient in generating energy from the sun. The plunging costs of PVs make it the fastest-growing, expanding renewable energy mix into global electric grids and an affordable renewable energy source. Solar PV accounts for 2% of the worldwide electricity mix. To optimize renewable energy harvest and storage, flexible grids that can manage the variability of energy production will be crucial in the success of PV’s and other renewable energy.

9. Silvopasture

Silvopasture is a farming method that combines cattle and trees. Conventional dairy or cattle farming would usually cut down trees to clear the area for cattle to graze. Silvopasture farming can be seen in countries like Sweden, Central America, the US, and Canada. The intermingling of trees and cattle offers many benefits. Studies show that ruminants can digest tree forage better and reduce methane emissions. This farming method can also sequester more carbon in both the biomass and the soil as it avoids deforestation.  Farmers can be better off financially when practising silvopasture as it allows them to diversify their produce like trees, livestock, and other forestry products as it matures and generates income at different time horizons. The many benefits offered by this farming technique can help farmers adapt to more erratic and extreme weather.

10. Rooftop Solar

Rooftop Solar offers power access to rural and off-the-grid areas, especially in poor and power-deficient communities.  Solar panels provide GHG emission-free power and can replace fossil fuels used by the community to generate electricity for light and other domestic uses. Later, rooftop solar panels can all be connected to the grid, feeding unused electricity to help meet broader demands. This arrangement can be financially feasible for homeowners as well. Small-scale PVs in some parts of the US and small island states provide cheaper electricity than the main power grids.

All the climate change solutions mentioned in the article already exist and are accessible to anyone who wishes to implement them.

During his interview with Green America, Author Paul Hawken says that all the solutions are within our grasp, and what they have been doing for the Project Drawdown is to map, measure, and model the most substantive solutions to global warming. If these solutions are scaled up to a reasonable level, the world can achieve a “drawdown” – that point in time when GHG peaks and goes down every year (Rysavy, 2020).