Solutions

Ninety-seven ways to draw down carbon and restore the living world.

We are researching and writing each one in our own words, and connecting it to the organizations in our directory who are actually doing the work. This is an ongoing project, not a finished encyclopedia. Solutions marked research in progress have not been written yet.

The solution framework here follows the taxonomy popularised by Project Drawdown, whose researchers modeled the carbon impact of each one and ranked them by scale. We do not reproduce their analysis. For the gigaton figures, the rankings, and the modeling behind them, go to the source: drawdown.org/solutions. What we add is different, and it is the thing nobody else can: where each solution matters, and who is already working on it near you.

97 solutions across 8 sectors. 41 researched and written so far; the rest are in progress.

Buildings and Cities

Bike InfrastructureResearch in progress Building AutomationResearch in progress District HeatingResearch in progress Green RoofsResearch in progress Heat PumpsResearch in progress InsulationResearch in progress Landfill MethaneResearch in progress LED LightingResearch in progress Net Zero BuildingsResearch in progress RetrofittingResearch in progress Smart GlassResearch in progress Smart ThermostatsResearch in progress Walkable CitiesResearch in progress Water DistributionResearch in progress

Coming Attractions

Artificial LeafResearch in progress Autonomous VehiclesResearch in progress Building with WoodResearch in progress Direct Air CaptureResearch in progress Enhanced Weathering of MineralsResearch in progress Hydrogen-Boron FusionResearch in progress HyperloopResearch in progress Industrial HempResearch in progress Intensive SilvopastureResearch in progress Living BuildingsResearch in progress Marine PermacultureResearch in progress Microbial FarmingResearch in progress Ocean FarmingResearch in progress Pasture CroppingResearch in progress Perennial CropsResearch in progress Repopulating the Mammoth SteppeResearch in progress Smart GridsResearch in progress Smart HighwaysResearch in progress Solid-State Wave EnergyResearch in progress

Energy

Biomass Burning plants for electricity. Genuinely carbon-neutral in some forms, and a catastrophe dressed as a solution… Cogeneration A power station throws away two-thirds of its energy as waste heat, up a cooling tower,… Concentrated Solar Mirrors focus sunlight to melt salt, and the molten salt holds the heat all night. It… Energy Storage (Distributed) A battery in the garage, in the basement, in the car. Millions of them, coordinated, become… Energy Storage (Utilities) The sun sets and the wind drops. Storage is the answer to the only serious objection… Geothermal The Earth is hot underneath and always will be. Geothermal is the only renewable that runs… Grid Flexibility The cheapest storage is a demand that can wait. Most of what we do with electricity… In-Stream Hydro Turbines in a flowing river, without a dam. All the reliability of hydropower and almost none… Methane Digesters Manure and food waste rot anyway and release methane anyway. A digester simply puts a lid… Microgrids A small grid that can run on its own. For 700 million people it is the… Micro WindResearch in progress Nuclear The safest way we have ever generated electricity, by a very wide margin, and one of… Rooftop Solar Generating electricity on the roof of the building that uses it. No transmission losses, no land… Solar Farms The cost of solar electricity fell ninety percent in fourteen years. Nothing in the history of… Solar WaterResearch in progress Waste-to-Energy Burning rubbish to make electricity. Better than a landfill, worse than not making the rubbish, and… Wave and Tidal The tide is the only renewable that is perfectly predictable, decades in advance, because it is… Wind Turbines Onshore wind is now the cheapest electricity available to the human species. Not the cheapest clean…

Food

Biochar Burn biomass without oxygen and you get charcoal that does not rot. Bury it and the… Clean Cookstoves 2.1 billion people cook on open fires. The smoke kills around three million a year, mostly… Composting Food in a landfill rots without oxygen and makes methane. The same food in a compost… Conservation Agriculture Do not plough. Keep the ground covered. Rotate the crops. Three rules, worked out after we… Farmland Irrigation Agriculture drinks about seventy percent of the fresh water humans use, and a great deal of… Farmland Restoration There is an enormous amount of land that was farmed until it stopped answering, and then… Improved Rice Cultivation Half the world eats rice. Flooded paddies are one of the largest sources of methane on… Managed Grazing Move the animals like a herd, not like a lawnmower. The grassland evolved with grazing, and… Multistrata Agroforestry A farm built like a forest: canopy, understorey, shrubs, ground. It stores carbon like woodland and… Nutrient Management We put on far more nitrogen than the plants can use. The excess becomes nitrous oxide,… Plant-Rich Diet Livestock uses 77% of the world's farmland and provides 18% of its calories. That single sentence… Reduced Food Waste A third of the food we grow is never eaten. If food waste were a country,… Regenerative Agriculture Stop ploughing, keep the soil covered, keep something living in it. Not a miracle, and not… Silvopasture Trees in the pasture. Cattle in the shade. Five to ten times the carbon of bare… Tree Intercropping Rows of trees through the crop field. The oldest field boundary in the world, torn out… Tropical Staple Trees Bananas, breadfruit, coconut, avocado, dates. Staple food that grows on a tree you plant once and…

Land Use

Afforestation The most intuitive climate solution, and the most frequently botched. Counting seedlings is not the same… Bamboo A grass that grows like a weed, hardens like timber, and can be cut every year… Coastal Wetlands Mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass bury carbon in waterlogged mud where it cannot rot. Per acre,… Forest Protection A standing forest is not a future carbon sink to be built. It is a carbon… Indigenous Peoples' Land Management Between 1985 and 2020, ninety percent of Amazon deforestation happened outside Indigenous lands. This is not… Peatlands Peat covers a few percent of the land and holds twice the carbon of every forest… Perennial Biomass Deep-rooted grasses on land too tired to farm. They hold the soil, need almost nothing, and… Temperate Forests The forests of the temperate world were cut long ago. Almost everything standing today is young.… Tropical Forests The Amazon makes its own rain. Cut enough of it and the forest can no longer…

Materials

Alternative CementResearch in progress BioplasticResearch in progress Household RecyclingResearch in progress Industrial RecyclingResearch in progress Recycled PaperResearch in progress RefrigerationResearch in progress Water Saving - HomeResearch in progress

Transport

AirplanesResearch in progress CarsResearch in progress Electric BikesResearch in progress Electric VehiclesResearch in progress High-Speed RailResearch in progress Mass TransitResearch in progress RidesharingResearch in progress ShipsResearch in progress TelepresenceResearch in progress TrainsResearch in progress TrucksResearch in progress

Women and Girls

Educating GirlsResearch in progress Family PlanningResearch in progress Women SmallholdersResearch in progress