Climate change solutions


Carbon literacy

Carbon Literacy is the awareness of climate change and the climate impacts of mankind's everyday actions. The term has been used in a range of contexts in scientific literature and in casual usage, but is most associated with The Carbon Literacy Project. W

The Carbon Literacy Project

The term Carbon Literacy had been used informally on a number of earlier occasions, but began to gain prominence in 2009 when it emerged in the development of the climate change action plan for Manchester, Manchester: A Certain Future.

This citizen-written plan pledged the UK's second largest urban area to:

  • Reduce the city of Manchester’s emissions of carbon dioxide by 41% by 2020, from 2005 levels.
  • To engage all individuals, neighbourhoods and organisations in Manchester in a process of cultural change that embeds ‘low-carbon thinking’ into the lifestyles and operations of the city.

In 2015, The Carbon Literacy Project was selected from a global field to be part of the Transformative Actions Program (TAP) at the UN Climate Change summit (COP21) in Paris, December 2015. The Carbon Literacy Project is therefore formally recognised as one of the top 100 responses the world has to offer in order to tackle climate change. W

Research

The use of the term ‘carbon literacy’ is increasingly widespread in everyday language and scientific literature, and includes (i) research that specifically evaluates Carbon Literacy and The Carbon Literacy Project, and (ii) the use of the term 'carbon literacy' in a more abstract sense.

Behavioural responses to climate change are limited due to the uncertainty and complexity associated with the subject. Current research focuses on the need for societal engagement in the mitigation of climate change, through an increase of understanding amongst citizens, organisations, schools and public bodies due to the uncertainty and complexity associated with the subject. Dissemination of Carbon Literacy training (which includes the causes and consequences of carbon emissions, and an understanding of the power of individual action) has been shown to qualitatively influence positive behaviour change with regard to reducing carbon footprints. Following CL training, energy and carbon-saving behaviour (including both individual and collective actions) has been shown to increase, including evidence of the ‘cascade effect’–where participants discussed CL with family, friends or colleagues.

Other studies conducted over the last two decades refer to the abstract concept of 'carbon literacy', and its importance in low-carbon behaviour change. W

Open CO2

Open CO2 is a project to help crowdsource open carbon accounts for local communities worldwide. It can also be about carbon literacy, encouraging ourselves to learn more about what the available data might show. Open local carbon accounts would help make possible Participatory carbon budgeting. See separate article: Open CO2

Participatory carbon budgeting

The idea is to combine two other ideas: participatory budgeting W and a carbon budget for an area, typically a large town or city. See separate article: Participatory carbon budgeting

Nature-based Solutions

"There is no pathway to net zero that does not involve a massive scale up of Nature-based Solutions (NbS). They could provide ⅓ of the cost-effective climate change mitigation worldwide, while helping communities adapt, reverse biodiversity loss, tackling climate vulnerability around the world. Despite all this just 3% of global climate fundings is invested in nature", Zac Goldsmith, UK Minister for the International Environment and Climate [1]

Natural climate solutions

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Natural Climate Solutions

Emissions Reduction Community based currency schemes

A community based emissions reduction currency scheme is a C4 type local currency in which local currency issues are backed by the emissions reductions of the schemes members. The local currency, when accepted for trade by other members or local businesses, thereby rewards participants for their efforts at global warming prevention. These currencies may have various degrees of convertibility into carbon saved, renewable energy, or national currency. W

Other climate change solutions

Resources

Networks

  • Rapid Transition Alliance, Rapid economic transition, including widespread behaviour change to sustainable lifestyles, is necessary to live within planetary ecological boundaries and to limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees. Rapid transition shows examples of evidence-based hope for change whose speed and potential scale will steer us towards staying within those boundaries and which advance social justice. Content published under a Creative Commons license. added 14:52, 22 January 2020 (UTC)

Research

Project Drawdown

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  • Drawdown, 100 solutions to reverse global warming

Project Drawdown is a climate change mitigation project initiated by Paul Hawken and climate activist Amanda Joy Ravenhill. Central to the project is the compilation of a list of the “100 most substantive solutions to global warming.” The list, encompassing only technologically viable, existing solutions, was compiled by a team of over 200 scholars, scientists, policymakers, business leaders and activists; for each solution the carbon impact through the year 2050, the total and net cost to society, and the total lifetime savings were measured and modelled.

Paul Hawken has edited the book Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming to support the Project. W

News and comment

2020

Missing in action: natural climate solutions in England's national parks, Sep 29 [2] ...Climate change solutions UK

Planting Trees Won’t Save the World, By Erle C. Ellis, Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis. The authors are scientists. Feb 12 [3]

Holland's Sea Ranger Service hugely sequestrates carbon. But it also socially benefits many: the unemployed, veterans, port workers, Feb 7 [4]

I pioneered the four-day week – now policymakers must adopt it to fight the climate crisis, Andrew Barnes, Jan 29 [5]

A European tour of climate solutions [6]

Make Australia green again, Jan 8 [7]

Germany cuts fares for long-distance rail travel in response to climate crisis, Jan 2 [8]

2019

Self-authoring and self-transforming communities should be our goal. But new citizens need personal development, too. Nov 20 [9] ...Climate change solutions UK

Is #GE2019 really going to become the "climate election"? The polls suggest that parties could make it so. Nov 13 [10] ...Climate change solutions UK

Technology will not save us from climate change – but imagining new forms of society will, Oct 28 [11]

Cross-sector ‘third spaces’ incubate social, climate solutions, Oct 9 [12]

See also


Carbon price W, Passivhaus W


References

  1. ↑ quoted in Urban Nature-based Solutions in Scotland at Scale, Toward a regenerative natural asset economy, 2019- , NatureScot, darkmatterlabs.org
  2. ↑ @friends_earth
  3. ↑ nytimes.com
  4. ↑ thealternative.org.uk
  5. ↑ theguardian.com
  6. ↑ the-beam.com, date not found
  7. ↑ @ecohustler
  8. ↑ The Guardian
  9. ↑ The Alternative UK
  10. ↑ The Alternative UK
  11. ↑ theconversation.com
  12. ↑ Shareable]
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