Climate Change
Shortcuts and Solution Stimulators for Important
Climate Change Methods & Goals
You could divide the following information into categories: why climate change matters, what needs to be worked on, solution stimulators (and facts to be aware of), and %s of solutions:
Climate change and pollutions caused by energy creation.
Climate change is likely to not only be the #1 most important environmental area worldwide, it is also likely to be the #2 most important development area globally out of thousands of topics.
At the same time, surveys of younger generations have ranked climate change as the #1 most important development area globally.
All countries that partook in the UNFCCC (the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) also signed onto the Kyoto Protocol.
Unfortunately progress towards sustainability stalled when the Kyoto Protocol was never ratified by the United States,
and other nations consequently ignored their pledges to the agreement.
Recently, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report that says “urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target” of keeping the global temperature at moderate levels.
They state that countries MUST follow the Paris Agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5 degrees Celsius and 2 degrees Celsius, otherwise the earth faces the melting of the Arctic ice caps.
The Panel says that a rise in temperatures would also trigger catastrophic results via intense natural disasters, unpredictable weather and food shortages.
The world is currently on course to reaching 3 degrees Celsius of global warming, and scientists have 12 years to impose significant changes to prevent this from happening.
Social Vulnerability and Environmental Disaster
Different groups of people are able to adapt to environmental disasters differently due to social factors such as age, race, class, gender, and nationality. It is often the case that the populations that do not contribute to climate change are not only in geographic location that experience more environmental disasters, but also have fewer resources to mitigate the impact of the disasters.
No one is more at risk than the world’s poorest people.
About two-thirds of those living in poverty work in agriculture, often relying on the food they grow to feed their families.
A warmer world will be problematic for relatively well-off farmers in America and Europe, but potentially deadly for low-income farmers in Africa and Asia.
The closer you live to the Equator, the worse the effects of climate change will be.
Droughts and floods will become more frequent, wiping out harvests more often.
Livestock will eat less and produce less meat and milk.
The air and soil start to lose moisture, leaving less water available for plants;
In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, tens of millions of acres of farmland will become substantially drier.
When you’re already living on the edge, any one of these changes could be disastrous.
We’re likely going to see a situation for these farmers where, instead of your crop getting wiped out every ten years, it gets wiped out every four years.
If you don’t have money saved up to buy imported food—which is the case for most smallholder farmers—your children will likely become malnourished and more susceptible to illness.
The worst impact of climate change in poor countries will be to make health worse—which is yet another reason why we need to help the poorest improve their health.
This starts with raising the odds that malnourished children will survive by improving primary healthcare systems, doubling down on malaria prevention, and continuing to provide vaccines for conditions like diarrhea and pneumonia.
We also need to ensure that fewer children are malnourished in the first place by helping poor farmers grow more food.
www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Helping-the-worlds-poorest-adapt-to-climate-change
Climate change and disaster risks
A 2013 report examined the relationship between disasters and poverty world-wide. It concludes that, without concerted action, there could be upwards of 325 million people living in the 49 countries most exposed to the full range of climate-strengthened natural disasters and climate extremes in 2040.
Is this true: exposed to the full range in 2040... #1 area from the #10
Can you name at least 10 countries most exposed to natural hazards and climate extremes?
Also remember that while hurricanes, flooding, and storm surges are very memorable, the deadliest natural disasters are actually food related disasters like droughts.
What ranks higher environmentally- climate change or soils and food supply? Climate change should rank higher, because while wealthier people can afford higher food prices, poorer people are affected the most by climate change affecting food. Although- food supply should always be in the list of top 10 priorities.
I know this sounds stressful at first, and one person can’t do everything.
But here is a solution for how the entire globe can do this:
If all people can be thoroughly- and ethically- persuaded
to spend a certain amount of time each week (e.g. 0.5 to 2 hours)
creating and/or implementing a certain number of %s of solutions or innovations,
this would be the equivalent of the world doing its best to minimise additional intense natural disasters, additional unpredictable weather and additional food shortages/famines.
For example, the above might be 0.5 - 2 hours every week (e.g. 1.5 hours) adding %s to the gaps, combined with persuading the whole world to do this regularly.
If you know me, you know that I have been implementing this method for climate change most weeks for the past two years.
Climate change is probably the 2nd most important global development area out of the thousands of potential areas, because of the number of people it affects and the sum of the ways it affects these people- and their governments, who have to pay to keep rebuilding from all the climate change disasters
In order to achieve what is needed developments in land use and technological changes are necessary.
Carbon pollution would have to be cut by 45% by 2030 and come down to 0 by 2050.
In order to prevent this outcome governments would need to require a “supercharged roll-back of emissions courses that have built up over the past 250 years.”
Although this would require carbon prices to be three to four times higher,
the consequences of global warming at this rate would be far more severe.
This shift towards environmental protection demands a workforce that is more heavily dedicated to studying sustainable development.
Individuals studying sustainable development will likely be focused on reducing the climate in which catastrophic global warming would take place.
Bill Gates: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: This book suggests a series of steps we can take to give ourselves the best chance to avoid a climate disaster:
Why zero? In chapter 1, I’ll explain more about why we need to get to zero, including what we know (and what we don’t) about how rising temperatures will affect people around the world. Because every plan to achieve anything starts with a realistic assessment of the barriers that stand in your way, in chapter 2 we’ll take a moment to consider the challenges we’re up against.
How to have an informed conversation about climate change. In chapter 3, I’ll cut through some of the confusing statistics you might have heard and share the handful of questions I keep in mind in every conversation I have about climate change. They have kept me from going wrong more times than I can count, and I hope they will do the same for you.
The good news: In chapters 4 through 9, I’ll break down the areas where today’s technology can help and where we need breakthroughs. This will be the longest part of the book, because there’s so much to cover. We have some solutions we need to deploy in a big way now, and we also need a lot of innovations to be developed and spread around the world in the next few decades.
Steps we can take now. I wrote this book because I see not just the problem of climate change; I also see an opportunity to solve it. We already have two of the three things you need to accomplish any major undertaking. First, we have ambition, thanks to the passion of a growing global movement led by young people who are deeply concerned about climate change. Second, we have big goals for solving the problem as more national and local leaders around the world commit to doing their part.
Now we need the third component: a concrete plan to achieve our goals. Just as our ambitions have been driven by an appreciation for climate science, any practical plan for reducing emissions has to be driven by other disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, economics, finance, and more. So in the final chapters of this book, I’ll propose a plan based on guidance I’ve gotten from experts in all these disciplines.
In chapters 10 and 11, I’ll focus on policies that governments can adopt;
In chapter 12, I’ll suggest steps that each of us can take to help the world get to zero. Whether you’re a government leader, an entrepreneur, or a voter with a busy life and too little free time (or all of the above), there are things you can do to help avoid a climate disaster. Let’s get started.
This is a problem we can help solve with innovation. We need better methods and tools to grow food, just like we need to find zero-carbon ways to move around and generate electricity. No other organization is in a better position to create the innovations that will help poor farmers adapt to climate change in the years ahead than CGIAR, a global partnership that helps make plants and animals more resilient and productive. (I’ve written about how amazing CGIAR is before.)
Where do greenhouse gas emissions come from? There are five main categories- five main challenges in stopping climate change:
Electricity (25%). Although there’s been progress in the renewable energy market, we still need more breakthroughs. For example, wind and solar need zero-carbon backup sources for windless days, long periods of cloudy weather, and nighttime. We also need to make the electric grid a lot more efficient so clean energy can be delivered where it’s needed, when it’s needed.
Agriculture (24%). Cattle are a huge source of methane; in fact, if they were a country, they would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases! In addition, deforestation—clearing land for crops, for instance—removes trees that pull CO2 out of the air, and when the trees are burned, they release all their carbon back into the atmosphere.
Manufacturing (21%). Look at the plastic, steel, and cement around you. All of it contributed to climate change. Making cement and steel requires lots of energy from fossil fuels, and it involves chemical reactions that release carbon as a byproduct. So even if we could make all the stuff we need with zero-carbon energy, we’d still need to deal with the byproducts.
Transportation (14%). Low-emission cars are great, but cars account for a little less than half of transportation-related emissions today—and that share will shrink in the future. More emissions come from airplanes, cargo ships, and trucks. Right now we don’t have practical zero-carbon options for any of these.
Buildings (6%). Do you live or work in a place with air conditioning? The refrigerant inside your AC unit is a greenhouse gas. In addition, it takes a lot of energy to run air conditioners, heaters, lights, and other appliances. Things like more-efficient windows and insulation would help. This area will be more important over the next few decades as the global population moves to cities. The world’s building stock will double in area by 2060. That’s like adding another New York City every month for 40 years.
(The final 10% is a sixth, miscellaneous category that includes things like the energy it takes to extract oil and gas.)
I think these grand challenges are a helpful way to think about climate change. They show how energy isn’t just what runs your house and your car. It’s core to nearly every part of your life: the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the home you live in, the products you use.
To stop the planet from getting substantially warmer, we need breakthroughs and solutions in how we make things, grow food, and move people and goods—not just how we power our homes and cars.
“If cattle/beef production was a country, they would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world”.
Have a look at the 100 worst climate change disasters and imagine those doubling in intensity and frequency, because that is what is happening.
What are alternative industries to this?
These challenges are only getting more urgent.
The world’s middle class has been growing at an unprecedented rate, and as you move up the income ladder, your carbon footprint expands. Instead of walking everywhere, you can afford a bicycle (which doesn’t use gas but is likely made with energy-intensive metal and gets to you via cargo ships and trucks that run on fossil fuels).
Eventually you get a motorbike so you can travel farther from home to work a better job and afford to send your kids to school. Your family eats more eggs, meat, and dairy, so they get better nutrition.
You’re in the market for a refrigerator, electric lights so your kids can study at night, and a sturdy home built with metal and concrete.
Everyone needs to remember with China that their outputs need to be compared to the number of people there- they have 1.4 billion people.
Please also remind everyone that a huge number of people’s jobs depend on the system that they have there, and you don’t know what % of the 1.4 billion people have spent their entire lives depending on their government to problem solve their economic problems, or have been doing the same job for decades. While they really, really, really need to prevent 100% of -10s to -4s, please keep reminding people about the 1.4 billion jobs that are dependent on their system and some people doing the same task areas for decades, and potentially difficulty with mentally changing. It took parts of the Soviet Union a decade to mentally transition to becoming capitalist. The world can’t afford humanitarian aid to 1.4 billion people- or even 1/100th of this- 140 million people- if it goes wrong. Methods to prevent -10s to -4s always need to be a priority, but remember the importance of the above as well.
https://www.gatesnotes.com/energy/my-plan-for-fighting-climate-change
Phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles
Environmental aspects of the electric car
Hydrogen economy
Rail electrification
Scrappage program
Vehicle recycling
Energy (useful areas and keywords)
Storage technologies, Fuel cells
Hydroelectric energy, Solar energy, Geothermal energy, Nuclear power, Wind energy
Alternative fuels, Fossil fuel, Biomass
Efficient energy use, Energy conservation
Ocean acidification is a direct consequence of increased human-induced carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere. The ocean absorbs over 25% of all anthropogenic emissions from the atmosphere each year. As CO2 dissolves in sea water it forms carbonic acid, decreasing the ocean’s pH and leading to a variety of changes collectively known as ocean acidification.
This causes water to heat up, killing marine life, reducing food supply and affecting the ocean’s ability to continue absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide, which speeds up climate change. Ocean acidification also affects coral, weakening its skeleton and causing breakage.
Ocean acidity has increased by 26% since 1850, 10 times faster than any period within the last 55 million years.
Food Insecurity
The climate crisis poses a significant threat to agriculture as changes in temperature and precipitation affect crop yield and shift agricultural zones.
While rising temperatures are causing the shifting of seasons, prompting plants to sprout and turn green sooner than usual, plants are becoming less nutritious, signalling a nutrient collapse and threatening food security.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that wheat and rice, which are highly sensitive to changes in CO2, are the main source of protein for 71% of the world’s population. A paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives predicts that given this dependence on plant-based proteins, more than 15% of the global population will be protein deficient, resulting in 90.9 million days lost to illness and 2 million deaths annually by 2050.
Forests are one of the most important carbon sinks on the planet as a whole, and the carbon they absorb is released when they are cut down or burned. Because of this, eventually forests will become sources of carbon, as opposed to carbon sinks. Food production is the leading cause of deforestation- beef, soy and palm oil in particular.
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases
This entire website was very helpful, although you also need to add the specific data for your country or region
https://news.mit.edu/2017/explained-greenhouse-gases-0130
How greenhouse gases warming strengths vary
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Lowering-Green-Premiums
If there is one idea I want people to take away from the book, it’s this- we need to lower the Green Premiums. The term refers to the difference in cost between a product that involves emitting carbon and an alternative that doesn’t. Green Premiums let us see which zero-carbon solutions we should deploy now—like solar power, which has a low premium in some places—and where we should pursue breakthroughs because the clean alternatives aren’t cheap enough. Lowering these premiums is the only way to zero out emissions without making things significantly more expensive.
Bill Gates’ solution stimulators for climate change:
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Search
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Leaders-Summit-on-Climate
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/My-plan-for-fighting-climate-change
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Moving-around-in-a-zero-carbon-world
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/It-Is-Surprisingly-Hard-to-Store-Energy
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Who-Will-Suffer-Most-From-Climate-Change
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Helping-the-worlds-poorest-adapt-to-climate-change
Methods:
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/top-10-climate-solutions/
https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/climate-change-science-solutions/
Climate change mitigation is: Reducing emissions and stabilizing the levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere; NASA
Carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping greenhouse gas that has driven recent global warming, lingers in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, and the planet (especially the oceans) takes a while to respond to warming.
Join Race to Zero global campaign that is rallying support from business, cities, regions, and investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery.
Join the United Nations ActNow campaign to take action on climate change.
https://www.un.org/actnow
The question here is always, where are the largest global climate change gaps (e.g. Bill Gates highlights the importance of climate change technology and which technologies are most likely to be adopted/ are cheapest/ have the most useful features)
and can these global climate change gap needs be regularly communicated to the world, together with solution stimulators if possible, to regularly attract %s of world wide solutions and solution stimulators
UN Environment Programme adds these incredibly helpful solution stimulators:
The Energy Sector:
Actions are required at every level: government, private sector and the public.
%s for government solutions
Commit to more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions and energy transition strategies
Set national and sub-national decarbonization and net-zero carbon targets
Halt policies that prop up the fossil fuel industry, including excessive subsidies
Introduce policies that incentivize renewable energy and promote energy efficiency
Green energy transition, a post-COVID win win for people and planet
Global renewable power growth outpaces fossil fuel growth by factor of 2.6
Iceland, a world-leader in clean energy, supports Africa's geo-thermal power
%s for the private sector
Audit corporate energy usage and energy efficiency
Embrace the opportunities that a transition to renewable energy will create across supply chains
Set a timeline to divest holdings in fossil fuel companies
Set decarbonization and net-zero carbon targets
Understand how much energy you use and try to consume less of it
Try to use energy that comes from renewable sources
Divest yourself from investments in fossil fuels
If you are able to choose between multiple providers, choose utilities and operators with clear commitments to decarbonization and energy efficiency
%s for individuals
Join Race to Zero global campaign that is rallying support from business, cities, regions, and investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery.
Understand how much energy you use and try to consume less of it
Try to use energy that comes from renewable sources
Divest yourself from investments in fossil fuels
If you are able to choose between multiple providers, choose utilities and operators with clear commitments to decarbonization and energy efficiency
The Industry Sector:
Actions are required at every level: government, private sector and the public.
%s for Government solutions
Commit to more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions and energy transition strategies
Set national and sub-national decarbonization and net-zero carbon targets
Halt policies that prop up the fossil fuel industry, including excessive subsidies
Introduce policies that incentivize renewable energy and promote energy efficiency
%s for the private sector
Audit corporate energy usage and energy efficiency
Embrace the opportunities that a transition to renewable energy will create across supply chains
Set a timeline to divest holdings in fossil fuel companies
Set decarbonization and net-zero carbon targets
%s for individuals
Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle what you consume
Ask companies and governments for information about how they produce and source both goods and services; read up on their commitments to sustainable production and practices
Ask companies and government bodies for sustainable options
Support companies that embrace sustainable and circular practices; for example, patronize businesses that provide spare parts, offer take-back services to reclaim used goods and use recycled materials.
Join the United Nations ActNow campaign to take action on climate change.
The Agriculture Sector:
Actions are required at every level: government, private sector and the public.
%s for government solutions
Measure food loss, create waste baselines and implement strategies to reduce food waste
Set and promote science-based targets to increase the availability and uptake of plant-rich foods, increase sustainable production and minimize food loss and waste
Inform consumers and producers about food choices and how to reduce food loss and waste
Align national dietary recommendations with climate goals
Promote climate-smart and sustainable agriculture practices
Legislative approaches for sustainable agriculture and natural resources governance
%s for the private sector
Measure and report company food loss and waste
Adopt a corporate commitment to halve food loss and waste by 2030
Work with suppliers and clients to find solutions that reduce food loss and waste across the supply chain, targeting waste hotspots like weak links in the cold chain
Review packaging, provide clear storage and freezing guidance, eliminate ‘display until’ dates and clarify best before/use-by dates
Avoid ‘Buy One Get One Free’ food promotions if they are likely to cause customers to buy more than they can eat
Repurpose extra-ripe foods in-store
Integrate corporate food loss and waste strategies across your company, including by making it easier for consumers and employees to limit their food waste
Set up processes for surplus food rescue to transfer healthy, uneaten food to services who can distribute it to those in need
%s for the public
Shift towards a plant-rich diet
Plan meals, write shopping lists, use portion-sizing tools for rice and pasta and cook with leftovers
Buy only what you can eat or save
Embrace ‘ugly’ fruit and vegetables
Store food to maximize freshness, including by freezing food when appropriate
Share excess with services who can distribute it to the needy
Compost food scraps
Ask grocery stores, restaurants and hotels to tackle food loss and champion those who lead the way
Eat seasonally and locally when possible
Forests and Land Use
Actions are required at every level:
%s for government
Halve tropical deforestation by 2025 and stop net deforestation by 2030 globally
Stop policies and subsidies that incentivize deforestation and promote the restoration of degraded forest
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, for the benefit of people and nature. It runs from 2021 through 2030, which is also the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals and the timeline scientists have identified as the last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Restore 150 million hectares of forests and other landscapes by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030 – the two primary goals of the Bonn Challenge
Systematically monitor and evaluate the progress of conservation and restoration efforts
The state of the world's forests: Forests, Biodiversity and People
%s for the Private Sector
Work with suppliers to find collaborative solutions to minimize ecosystem impacts across the supply chain
Invest in landscape conservation and restoration as part of net-zero emission efforts; investments must meet high social and environmental standards
Promote investments in deforestation-free supply chains.
%s for the Public
Join a local or national organization supporting forest habitat conservation and restoration
Adopt a diet that reduces forest habitat loss and degradation by shopping locally and in season and purchasing products with deforestation-free ingredients, when possible.
Whenever possible, neutralize your carbon footprint through investments in natural carbon sinks, such as forests
Buildings and Cities
Actions are required at every level: government, private sector and the public.
%s for Government solutions:
Retrofit public buildings
Promote the installation of heat pumps, solar cells and heat storage technology
Incentivize the installation of central cooling and heating and the use of energy efficient lighting and appliances
Set carbon-neutral building standards for new construction
Mainstream sustainable building within urban and rural planning
Incentivize mini-grid solutions, district heating and cooling and waste to energy systems
Plan cities for strategic density and mixed use of buildings and urban fabric, so that neighborhoods have the services they need at the local scale
Integrate grey, blue and green infrastructure to manage resources and runoff with minimal impact to the environment
Invest in physical and market infrastructure to better link rural and urban producers and consumers
Develop smart systems to integrate buildings, mobility and energy systems, including traffic management, distributed EV-charging and integrated planning processes
%s for the public sector
Assess your energy use and carbon footprint
Make long-term sustainability a core facet of your business and investment practices
Capitalize on government incentives designed to lower carbon emissions
Be a leader in sustainable and low-carbon practices
Educate your consumers and clients about sustainability
%s for individuals
Join Race to Zero global campaign that is rallying support from business, cities, regions, and investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery.
Understand a home’s energy efficiency before you buy or rent
Find out where your home loses energy and take steps to address it
Seal windows and doors, stop thermal bridges through insulation, install double-glazed doors and invest in heat pumps
Regulate temperature by adding verandas, green roofs, high-inertia walls and bio-based insulation made from renewable or recyclable materials
Use curtains and blinds to keep homes cooler and reduce the need for air conditioning
Switch to LED lighting and understand efficiency performance when buying new appliances, especially air conditioners.