Climate change mitigation efforts include efforts to lower GHG emissions and enhance carbon sinks. It also involves measures such as building flood defenses, planning for heat waves, managing water supplies efficiently and protecting biodiversity.
Every action we take counts! Explore ways that you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through switching to renewable energy, recycling and limiting plastic consumption.
Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency is an integral component of meeting our climate change mitigation goals. It cuts energy bills for households while improving competitiveness of businesses and industries, while decreasing fossil fuel dependence and air pollution levels; providing health benefits to marginalized populations affected by industrial emissions.
Attaining net zero emissions requires significant improvements in energy efficiency; it accounts for 40% of required abatement measures and can be implemented cost-effectively.
Energy efficiency measures reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by shifting away from fossil fuels towards renewable sources, eliminating the need to excavate or burn additional fossil reserves, and increasing carbon sequestration through forests, wetlands, agricultural soils, and grasslands.
Transportation
Transportation is essential to our daily lives, providing access to healthcare, jobs and other resources. But transportation emissions also account for one of the greatest contributors of greenhouse gases emissions; making transportation more sustainable can play an integral part in mitigating climate change.
Utilizing more public transit, bikes and walkable streets can help lower carbon dioxide emissions. But public transportation systems depend on ridership to function effectively; as such, their design must be accessible and affordable for people.
Policy initiatives designed to foster more active transportation can have health-related side benefits, including reducing traffic injuries. Meanwhile, conserving and restoring natural ecosystems can aid carbon sequestration while creating habitat for native plants, animals, and wildlife. For examples of this approach see Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange.
Buildings
Buildings are major contributors of carbon dioxide emissions that trap heat near Earth’s surface. To mitigate their climate impact, architects must implement energy-saving and low carbon design principles into building projects – this process is known as decarbonization.
Embodied emissions can be reduced by using less carbon intensive materials and employing circular economy techniques for construction projects. Green design features such as water-efficient fixtures and plantings can further mitigate environmental effects by minimizing runoff and urban heat islands.
Architects can also help mitigate climate change impacts by encouraging development in less vulnerable areas and protecting open spaces that protect ecosystems from rising sea levels, intensified storm surges and increased heavy precipitation events. Furthermore, architects may use natural-based solutions such as wetland restoration or living shorelines to adapt the built environment accordingly.
Agriculture
Agriculture plays an essential role in combatting climate change. Crops, hedgerows and trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere; well-managed farmland helps mitigate emission of greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide; while
Regenerative farming practices such as conservation tillage, intercropping, rotational grazing and agroforestry can play an essential role in increasing soil health and strengthening climate resilience.
Farmers can reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides as well as fossil fuel inputs for equipment and transportation; however, reaching emission-free production of food and renewable resources through agriculture at this point is impossible; hence the necessity of taking an informed and holistic approach when considering agriculture’s climate impacts; for instance focusing solely on mitigating methane without considering impacts such as nitrous oxide or carbon dioxide could create unintended trade-offs in terms of meeting Paris temperature goals.
Waste Management
Everyday consumption and production generate waste, which is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Decomposition of organic waste releases methane gas into the atmosphere – another powerful greenhouse gas. Altering waste disposal practices such as recycling and emissions management could significantly decrease global warming.
Good waste management can also reduce fossil fuel usage in energy-intensive processes that produce and transport waste, thus decreasing direct climate change emissions. The waste sector has the potential to achieve significant greenhouse gas savings at relatively low costs; responding to this “waste emergency” would enable progress across numerous Sustainable Development Goals.
Many governments are already beginning to address this problem by instituting policies such as bans on certain types of plastic production, landfill taxes and emission caps for waste incineration – measures which will foster sustainability and help promote sustainability.