Climate change mitigation entails restricting the release of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by either decreasing their sources or strengthening those that absorb them – for instance by cutting energy use through improved energy efficiency measures, adopting renewable forms of power sources or changing farming practices towards more eco-friendly options.
Significant mitigation actions must be undertaken to keep global warming below 2 degrees C – the point beyond which irreversible changes to sea level rise, extreme weather events and water availability occur.
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions are one of the main drivers of global warming. Reducing them helps slow climate change by lessening planetary greenhouse effect; this includes cutting emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping gases as well as improving Earth’s natural “sinks” that capture and store these emissions.
Energy emissions account for about two-thirds of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and mitigation efforts in the energy sector aim at lowering them through replacing fossil fuels with renewable energies, improving building and appliance efficiencies, lowering electricity production emissions and transmission transmission emissions, shifting agricultural practices that release potent GHGs like nitrous oxide and methane as well as shifting agricultural practices that release GHGs like methane into the atmosphere.
Nearly every country agrees that carbon neutrality should be achieved by 2050 at the latest (Millar and others 2017). To accomplish this goal, global emissions must peak quickly before quickly declining; to do this will require changes to energy supply, land use and urbanization and innovative technologies; it also depends on restoring healthy ecosystems which provide essential services such as clean air and water.
Biological Carbon Sequestration
Biological carbon sequestration technologies harness ecosystems’ natural ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Enhancing biological carbon sequestration through practices such as reforestation, reduced or no-till farming practices and agroforestry that includes trees and shrubs along with crops and livestock can significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
Restoring coastal wetland ecosystems such as mangrove forests and seagrass beds can help mitigate anthropogenic CO2 emissions while improving water quality and providing habitat for native plants, animals and humans.
Some scientists are exploring carbon sequestration using an innovative geoengineering proposal called carbon capture and storage (CCS). With CCS, coal or other fossil fuels are burned for energy production while their produced carbon dioxide is separated from other gases before being compressed underground for long-term storage.
Reducing Vulnerability
Vulnerability reduction is a method of climate change mitigation used to lower disaster risks by decreasing susceptibility of communities to hazards and emergencies. It involves vulnerability assessments, risk reduction techniques, and emergency preparedness practices.
Forest conservation strategies that foster sustainable management and conservation can play a major role in global greenhouse gas emission reduction, lessening climate change vulnerabilities. Furthermore, such practices bring many other advantages like biodiversity preservation and improved water cycling.
Realizing our goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius would significantly lessen climate change impacts, including reduced extreme weather events and sea level rise, less stress on ecosystems and food production systems, and fewer irreversible climate consequences.
Attaining this goal requires adopting low-carbon development strategies such as energy efficiency, regenerative buildings and integrated landscapes – strategies which should be pursued globally across cities of the Global South as well as linked with development policies that address issues of equity while creating alternative employment opportunities for fossil fuel industry workers.
Adaptation
Adaptation seeks to increase society’s ability to respond effectively to climate change impacts by devising strategies designed to lessen vulnerability. These include building resilience through planning and design; disaster risk reduction measures; response planning strategies and impact assessments for critical systems (water, health, habitat and agriculture).
EPA’s Climate Change Adaptation website features links to an abundance of EPA resources related to adaptation, such as information on climate risks and tools that assist communities in understanding them; case studies of community adaptation efforts with lessons learned and online training opportunities.
Attaining climate change mitigation requires decreasing human contributions to global greenhouse effect by decreasing emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide and methane and increasing natural “sinks”, like forests, that absorb carbon dioxide as “sinks”. Furthermore, investing in sustainable development and protecting biodiversity helps with both climate change mitigation and adaptation – though taking too early action risks locking in inappropriate outcomes; taking it too late risks creating much greater consequences than needed.