Project Drawdown: Solutions for Climate Change and Sustainable Development

Project Drawdown brought together a qualified and diverse group of researchers from around the world to identify, research and model the most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by reducing fossil fuel emissions and sequestering carbon out of the atmosphere. These range from bioplastics to artificial leafs to building automation, clean cookstoves, coastal wetlands, living buildings, cows walking on beaches, and many more.

Project Drawdown showcases 3 different scenarios with increasing levels of ambition: the Plausible scenario, with a greenhouse gas reduction of 1,051 gigatons; the Drawdown scenario, with a greenhouse gas reduction of 1,442 gigatons, and the Optimum scenario, with a greenhouse gas reduction of 1,612 gigatons, from 2020 to 2050. In scenario Drawdown, negative emissions or drawdown (point in time when greenhouse gases are removed from the atmosphere) are achieved in 2050; in the Optimum scenario, negative emissions are achieved by 2045. In both the Drawdown and Optimum scenarios, fossil fuels are phased out by 2050 and society is 100% powered by renewable energy (albeit in the case of the Drawdown scenario with biomass, landfill methane, nuclear and waste-to-energy, none in the case of the Optimum scenario).

Towards this end, another initiative, The Solutions Project, aims to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy by championing a movement towards clean, renewable energy that is more inclusive, more collaborative, and more celebratory. Through storytelling, grant-making, and capacity building, the project honours clean energy leaders, invests in promising solutions, and builds relationships between unlikely allies to achieve 100% electrification by 100% renewables by 2050.

Read more at Green Growth Knowledge Platform