Sustainability scientist and professor Kimberly Nicholas summarized the situation well: the planet is warming, we caused it, we’re sure, it’s bad, but we can fix it.
I know that the enormity of the situation can be enough to make you want to stop reading right now. I felt the same way when I first started diving deeper into our global reality. Until I found the right resources and community to help channel frustration and grief into impactful action.
This article is a short summary of my current understanding of how to think about what we can do to address climate change. How we can manage our own company or personal portfolios to make a difference.
As a disclaimer, I am not a climate scientist. Just a fellow concerned resident of this planet, that has experienced the challenges of complex transformations. The core information in this article is curated from multiple organizations that research, communicate, and fight for action every day.
How bad is it? A climate summary for busy people
Man-made climate change has led to disasters such as historic levels of rain, heat, drought, fires, and storms across the world leading to food shortages, destroyed homes and infrastructure, and thousands of lives lost.
Every community will be impacted and some are already seeing devastating effects at only a 1°C global temperature rise. Some of the effects on the planet to date are irreversible.
For decades, we’ve known about the problem, the emissions targets we need to hit, the actions we can take to get there, and the cost of inaction.
The rate of progress has been frustrating. But organizations and individuals around the world continue to put pressure on world leaders and executive decision makers while taking action where they can.
The UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change is probably the most well-known forum for discussing global climate action. COP27 will close out this week in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The conference is a portfolio view of how the world is doing on climate. A global checkpoint to evaluate where we are, adjust plans and align on shared commitment to action.
We’ve made progress in some areas, but we’re not on track to meet the emissions goals and keep warming below dangerous levels. In some cases, emissions are going in the wrong direction.
What can we do about it?
We all need to keep the pressure up on decision makers and make choices in our own lives to hold everyone accountable for meeting these goals. To bend the emissions curve as fast as possible.
There is some confusing and misleading information out there, but technology is not the barrier to action at this point. We have the technology we need to significantly reduce greenhouse gases today. What we need is commitment and action at every level to implement and scale out the solutions we already have.
It’s now easier than ever to find a range of actions to lower emissions. Organizations have packaged up recommendations for their target audiences but generally provide a menu of choices, encouraging people to choose the actions that best fit their situation and resources.
Unfortunately, options can also lead to overwhelm. As you learn more about what you can do, it can be confusing to sort out where to start.
The information in the rest of this article is meant to cut through some of the overwhelm to get you unstuck but it barely scratches the surface of the climate action conversation happening around the world. I’ve linked a few organizations at the end if you’re interested in diving into these topics more.
Let’s start with the outcomes we’re aiming for.
What’s our goal? The metrics that matter
Global temperatures have already risen 1°C and the most recent IPCC report stated that we need to keep the global temperature rise to 1.5°C total to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. According to climate scientists, that means cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, and fully by 2050.
Unfortunately, we are not on track to hit the 1.5°C target. Some countries’ targets are still not ambitious enough. Some governments and companies are still making investment decisions that move us farther away from hitting our goals. Greenwashing and intentional misinformation campaigns are real issues.
While the challenge is urgent and critical, this doesn’t mean that all is lost if we miss the mark. Every fraction of a degree the planet warms matters. The world at 1.5°C is drastically different from the world we know. The difference between 2°C and 1.5 on human lives and the planet we share is significantly scarier. Every ton of emissions avoided or removed and fraction of a degree avoided matters. We have both urgency to take action, and agency to make an impact.
Of course, emissions reductions aren’t the only metrics we care about. So when evaluating the options we also need to consider impacts on the other metrics we hope to improve like equity, justice, safety, health, financial sustainability, community building, and ecosystem recovery.
What do we need to do? Strategies that move the metrics
Given the short timeframe we have to act, we need to hone in on the strategies that will make the biggest impact on the key metrics.
Looking purely at the goal of returning greenhouse gases to a stable level, according to Project Drawdown, given the science of how emissions are added and removed from the atmosphere, the most important step is to eliminate the sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
Plainly, that means we stop extracting and burning fossil fuels as soon as possible. We cannot invest in new fossil fuel investment and we need to switch to alternative solutions quickly. We also need to dramatically reduce leakage of other greenhouse gases such as methane and hydrofluorocarbons.
The next most important way to achieve drawdown is to focus on protecting and improving natural absorption and storage of carbon. Man-made carbon capture techniques are still not available at the scale we would need them. Carbon capture without driving new emissions to zero will not be enough.
Depending on where analysts draw the system boundaries and decide which elements to include, the impact percentages can vary, but generally, the industries with the highest emissions today are power, buildings, industry, transport, forests and land (such as from deforestation and degenerative land use), and food and agriculture.
Research has also shown that more than half of the cumulative carbon emissions of industrial CO2 and methane since the industrial revolution can be traced to around 90 companies, mainly in the oil and gas industry.
Combining these factors (the science of greenhouse gas drawdown, industries to focus on, and products to avoid), we can narrow in on a set of strategies: driving toward zero-carbon power, decarbonizing buildings, reducing emissions and waste throughout the lifecycle of the goods and services we need, moving to more sustainable modes of transportation, reducing deforestation and regenerating ecosystems.
All of these strategies can be implemented with additional benefits to equity, climate resilience, community building, energy security, economic prosperity, and other goals which would need to be evaluated at the action level.
Now that we know generally which strategies are more impactful, the next step is to evaluate which ones are most relevant to your region, company, or neighborhood.
How are we doing right now? Review the current state to identify relevant leverage points
Analysis has been done at international, national, regional, sector, and business levels to understand the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. A number of organizations have made the data public, to help countries and communities understand the current state and potential impact of actions on overall emissions. I’ve linked to a few of them at the end of this article.
Recognizing that climate change is a global problem and a relatively small group of actors are creating the largest emissions, groups and individuals can still make a difference. By looking at their own sphere of influence to push for legislation and hold the major emitters accountable, while reducing personal, community, and business reliance on fossil fuels.
That means that a residential neighborhood may first focus on reducing emissions from buildings and transportation, then look at reducing food waste, carbon emissions embodied in the products consumed, and fostering natural carbon sinks.
While a company may focus on energy usage, emissions throughout the value chain, transportation choices, etc. as relevant to their business model. A revamp of the business model itself might be necessary or desirable in the new post-carbon era.
Mapping the largest sources of emissions and local resources to the big strategies can help narrow in on which to focus on first (or to put more effort behind).
I recommend picking 1-3 areas to start depending on your current bandwidth. Once you have momentum on those you can expand into others.
What should we invest in? Actions that further the strategies
Within each of the strategies outlined above, there are hundreds of potential actions. Many organizations have published extensive lists of suggestions or promoted their solution as the one to invest in.
And fortunately, most of the critical actions we need to take include technology that exists today. Or don’t require tech at all.
How do we know which actions to focus on?
If you’ve gone through the steps above, you should have landed on a few strategies that are relevant to your situation. Maybe you determine you need to focus on emissions due to energy usage in buildings.
From there you can look at what the largest contributions to emissions in buildings typically are or conduct a building energy audit to learn more about where to focus your investments for the best return.
Finally, there is now a range of solutions available, so you could evaluate them based on their relevance to your situation, how many, and what types of resources you have to invest. For example, maybe your community is surrounded by trees so focusing on adding solar panels isn’t feasible. You could encourage homeowners to invest in community solar or electrify their homes instead.
Project Drawdown is one organization that manages a list of recommended climate solutions. In early 2023, they will be publishing recommendations of actions that would provide an immediate impact to drawdown at lower cost and effort vs. ones that will require additional investment and make a difference over the next decade or further into the future. I recommend following them to be informed when the final version is published.
As a side note, carbon offsets are not a replacement for dramatic emissions cuts so it is better to invest directly in reducing the emissions you can control or have an influence over as a community member, political constituent, consumer, employee, or business owner.
What does a post-carbon world look like? Crafting the future we want
Before finalizing the shortlist of actions, it’s worth running them through another filter. Do these actions move us closer to creating a world and life we want?
While most Americans agree on the need to address greenhouse gas emissions, most of the current debate seems to be around what our society will need to look like for us to limit global temperature rise and live within the planet’s capacity.
Can we tweak status quo operations or do we need an overhaul of systems and institutions?
What might a post-carbon society look like?
What could the journey to that future state look like? Are there actions we can agree on like moving to clean energy and electrifying homes while we explore alternative ways of living, working, and relating to each other and the world around us?
Given the history of inaction, it’s increasingly looking like big shifts are required, but there is still some low-hanging fruit. Imperfect action now is better than no action.
Personally, I think this is an extremely exciting time to live because of the opportunities we have to reimagine our systems and make them work better for everyone (and everything) on the planet.
As more diverse perspectives are raised and cross-pollinated we’re seeing really interesting conversations and trends. Communities and companies are already creating changes that are addressing other systemic issues and symptoms, not just greenhouse gas emissions.
So pick a few actions to start, and enjoy the journey of dreaming, debating, and creating the future.
How should we balance investments? Allocating resources
Given all of the information above, businesses, communities, households and donors/investors need to decide where and how to invest their resources. We’re seeing more recommendations coming from international non-profits, regional climate action plans, and organizations helping businesses and homeowners make better choices.
Here are three recommendations for how to think about where to invest resources.
1. Make climate investments a normal part of daily life
Climate action doesn’t need to be an either/or choice. To get started, it may be as simple as evaluating where your current resources are going and making small adjustments.
You already pay for energy. Installing solar panels on your house or office building is not the only way to support clean energy. For a lower-cost alternative, you can join a community solar project, purchase RECs, or advocate for your power company to switch to 100% renewable energy faster.
Instead of purchasing a new item, consider repairing it or searching the secondhand market for a replacement. Or see if you could pay someone to provide a service for the same outcome, instead of purchasing a physical product.
If you need to invest in new equipment, energy efficiency or extended producer responsibility could be a key factor in the purchasing decision.
As for how to reallocate your time, you already spend time at work, so consider how you could make an impact in your current role. Project Drawdown Labs has published a set of recommendations on how to make any job a Climate Job.
If you’re overwhelmed, I recommend starting with this resource allocation method because it is the easiest way to build momentum.
2. Rethink resources- Act locally and influence up and out
What’s exciting about right now is that the resources available to us are constantly changing.
Especially when you think of resources more broadly. Not just as your personal time, attention, money, energy, and physical resources. But also your relationships, power as a consumer, political voice, and access to information, goods, and services.
Through investments and experiments across the country and world, there are a lot more options to achieve the goals. And the barriers to participating in those options are lowering.
For example, we’re seeing different models that allow people to participate in the clean energy economy without needing to invest as much upfront. You can rent or lease an electric vehicle, or advocate for your local government to purchase a fleet of electric buses if you don’t currently have the funds to purchase your own EV.
If you don’t have a lot of time or extra funds, there are organizations that curate and send out key updates and actions. I recommend joining their mailing list to stay aware of what’s going on. A few of those organizations are listed at the end of this article.
If you have time but not a lot of money, there are government and non-profit organizations providing information, training, and in some cases materials for carbon reduction projects. Decision makers within your community (ex. local groups, county government, or state government) are reviewing policies and making decisions that could impact the climate. As a member of that community, they need to hear your perspective and they need your support reaching others.
If you have financial resources but not a lot of time, then consider moving your money from big banks that are supporting the proliferation of fossil fuels, to banks that provide fossil-fuel free funds, such as Amalgamated or Aspiration. If you are in the position to purchase solutions, donate or invest, consider supporting organizations promoting and scaling climate solutions.
3. Balance investments in Migitation, Resilience, and Disaster Recovery
We are also already seeing the impact of climate disasters, so unfortunately, a larger portion of funding and energy will need to go to addressing loss and damage and building resilience for future events in parallel with taking climate action.
According to reports, loss and damage is a major topic at COP27 this year as most of the countries seeing the largest impacts from climate change contributed the least to the problem.
We also know that given the science of greenhouse gases, even if we cut all emissions today, the existing gases in the atmosphere will continue to warm the planet and cause issues for years.
Climate change will impact all of our built systems, so climate resilience protects our livelihoods, health, and safety as well. That may look like investing in infrastructure, knowledge, community relationships, or insurance to handle worst-case scenarios.
Taking action on commitments and tracking results
By this point, you’ve created a portfolio of climate solutions. You narrowed in on the strategies that contribute to climate goals and make sense for your situation, picked a few actions, and decided how to allocate resources to make it happen. Depending on the actions you picked, this is where productivity, habit change, community building, and design tactics come in.
Some actions are simple to execute, but others require long timelines or are not accessible to everyone. So we’re also seeing a shift to investigate other ways to implement and scale solutions faster. Whether by developing expedited legal and regulatory processes, leveraging technology, government programs, or innovative business models to expand access to climate solutions.
For tracking impact, unfortunately, emissions are a lagging indicator and it can be difficult to track the direct impact of some actions so tracking and monitoring leading indicators may be more motivating.
Some examples of leading indicators are the number of houses in a zip code with gas heating that convert to electric. Tracking the reduction in volume of food waste going to landfill each month. Or evaluating the amount of funds allocated to climate projects vs. projects that undermine progress toward climate goals.
Where to learn more
If you’re interested in learning more, here are a handful of organizations I recommend following that provide clear science-based information, simple ways to take action, and access to an engaged community:
- Project Drawdown– Curated list of climate solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere
- World Resources Institute (WRI)– Data about global resources and climate goals
- Grist – Solutions-based climate journalism, source for perspectives that are typically underrepresented in traditional media
- 350 (includes local chapters) – Clear information about the challenge, and access to local efforts and educational resources
- League of Conservation Voters (includes local chapters) – Resources and practical actions for advocating for national and state environmental policies
If you’re in Virginia, the Virginia Conservation Network is a good place to learn about the issues and policies that over 150 diverse groups across the commonwealth are collectively advocating for, including climate. You can search their partner directory to find organizations working in geographic areas or on challenges that interest you.
If you’re in the DC area, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments has a Climate and Energy Action Plan. Fairfax County has also created both a climate action and climate resilience plan. They are also promoting an initiative called Carbon-Free Fairfax with more local information and resources about what can be done within the county. Other counties have created similar plans.
If you live elsewhere, I encourage you to check with your local government’s environment or energy office to see if they have published or are working on a climate action plan. Join their mailing list to stay updated on progress and relevant resources.
These plans can provide a wealth of information about local emissions, how your region is doing, and where local strengths and opportunities are. They can also be a good way to find other organizations taking action nearby.
If your enterprise needs help crafting and/or executing a transformation plan, Recharted Territory may be a good fit. Reach out here to set up a free consultation to chat about your goals and needs.
How will you take action on climate?
