Three climate actions

Meeting climate goals through mitigation and intervention: developments in emissions reduction, greenhouse gas removal, and solar radiation modification

Ten years ago, the so-called Paris Agreement established a goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Current assessments suggest we may breach this threshold and more, and many are concerned about severe impacts on humans and ecosystems around the world.

A new paper by Dante McGrath, researcher at the Centre for Climate Repair, University of Cambridge, discusses three climate actions that could enable society to fulfil the Paris Agreement and limit the effects of global warming.

Emissions reduction, which involves shifting energy production away from fossil fuels, is central to the review; “without concerted efforts in this area,” say the authors, “the other actions are futile.”

But the paper expands to consider additional methods which, if better understood, could complement these efforts.

"As a society, we know a lot about emissions reduction, less about greenhouse gas removal, and even less about sunlight reflection methods,” says McGrath. “This paper seeks to highlight the range of measures that could help us meet our climate goals.”

Read the peer-reviewed paper in Global Sustainability's Carbon Zero and Sustainability issue: Meeting climate goals through mitigation and intervention: developments in emissions reduction, greenhouse gas removal, and solar radiation modification | Global Sustainability | Cambridge Core