Sources: How to Mitigate Global Heating, Restore Ecosystems & Adapt

Particularly influential and summary pieces are marked with a *

Meeting climate targets

General

Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change – 6th Assessment Report by the IPCC (wg 3)

IPCC report: ‘now or never’ if world is to stave off climate disaster (2022, article in The Guardian based on IPCC 2022 report ‘Mitigation of Climate Change’)

Cutting emissions

Methane reduction is vital to achieving a 1.5C future (2022, article in The Guardian)

How fast do we need to cut carbon emissions? (2021, article in The Guardian)

Cutting emissions in globally fair shares

Climate Equity Reference Calculator – tool and database that systematically applies a transparent equity reference framework with the goal of quantitatively examining the problem of national fair shares in a global effort to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Reducing pollution

Ban on single-use restaurant tableware hailed as fast-food ‘revolution’ in France (2022, article in The Guardian)

Air pollution

What can cities do when air pollution soars and what works: Reducing speed limits, banning home wood-burning and providing free transport are just some of the approaches taken (2022, article in The Guardian)

Phasing out fossil fuels

Rich countries must stop producing oil and gas by 2034, says study (2022, article in The Guardian, based on this study by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research)

Shut down fossil fuel production sites early to avoid climate chaos, says study: Nearly half existing facilities will need to close prematurely to limit heating to 1.5C, scientists say (2022, article in The Guardian based on article in Environmental Research Letters)

Phaseout Pathways for Fossil Fuel Production Within Paris-compliant Carbon Budgets (2022, report by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research)

*To reach 1.5°C target, no new oil, gals and coal field development should approved (2021, report by the International Energy Agency)

How much of the world’s oil needs to stay in the ground? (2021, article in The Guardian based on this article in Nature)

*Fossil fuels that need to remain unextracted (‘in the ground’) to reach 1.5°C , fossil industry would need to shrink by 3% annually until 2050 (2021, article in Nature)

‘Abolish these companies, get rid of them’: what would it take to break up big oil? (2021, article in The Guardian)

*Production Gap Report 2020 – shows how the world needs to decrease fossil fuel production by 6% a year between 2020 and 2030 but is instead increasing 2% per year

Energy in public control

I worked for BP for 30 years – the energy sector has become incompetent and greedy: If these profiteering firms are failing to meet society’s needs, the government should take them back into public control (opinion article in The Guardian)

Taxing fossil fuel profits

Even Shell can see it is earning too much from this crisis – the energy market needs a profits cap (2022, opinion article in The Guardian)

Big oil and Opec are holding the world to ransom – it’s time to rein them in: The UN’s call for windfall taxes must be taken up by governments to help break the power of greedy cartels (2022, opinion article in The Guardian)

Reducing or abolishing animal protein

England must reduce meat intake to avoid climate breakdown, says food tsar (2022, article in The Guardian)

Climate-friendly diets can make a huge difference – even if you don’t go all-out vegan (2022, article in The Guardian)

Plant-based meat by far the best climate investment, report finds (2022, article in The Guardian based on report by Boston Consulting Group)

Going vegan: can switching to a plant-based diet really save the planet? If politicians are serious about change, they need to incentivise it, say scientists and writers (2021, article in The Guardian)

*Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth: Biggest analysis to date reveals huge footprint of livestock – it provides just 18% of calories but takes up 83% of farmland (2018, article in The Guardian based on article in Science)

Systems change

En-Roads climate policy simulator – a ‘policy simulation model that gives everyone the chance to design their own scenarios to limit future global warming’

*State of Climate Action 2021: Systems Transformations Required to Limit Global Warming to 1.5°C –This report translates these transitions into 40 targets for 2030 and 2050, with measurable indicators. (2021, report by the World Resource Institute)

Indigenous rights & land use practice

Protect Indigenous people’s rights or Paris climate goals will fail, says report – Rainforests looked after by communities absorb twice as much carbon as other lands, analysis shows (article in The Guardian based on report by Forest Declaration Platform)

Technological advances

Green hydrogen could counter energy crisis, says British firm (2022, article in The Guardian)

Protecting and restoring ecosystems

The world’s forests do more than just store carbon, new research finds – New data suggests forests help keep the Earth at least half of a degree cooler, protecting us from the effects of climate crisis (2022, article in The Guardian based on article in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change)

Rewilding

Lost rainforest could be revived across 20% of Great Britain (2022, article in The Guardian based on analysis by Lost Rainforests of Britain)

Unexpected arrival at a pioneering rewilding project in Kent after introduction of animals in July: First wild bison born in UK for millennia after surprise pregnancy (2022, article in The Guardian)

Forest has a strong capacity to regrow on abandoned lands – this could play an increasingly important role in biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and landscape restoration (2021, article in Science

Conservation

Harvesting human pee and DIY fertiliser: top conservation issues in 2023 (2022, article in The Guardian)

World’s largest ocean reserve off Hawaii has spillover benefits nearby, study finds (2022, article in The Guardian based on article in Science)

Learning from indigenous practice

*The role of indigenous peoples in biodiversity conservation: the natural but often forgotten partners (2008, report for the World Bank, shows that 80% of worlds’ biodiversity is to be found in territories stewarded by indigenous communities)

Alternative farming

Gluten-free and insect-friendly: buckwheat returns to Dutch farms: A project to revive the crop, once grown across the Netherlands, is boosting pollinators and a renewed interest in the seed (2022, article in The Guardian)

Adaptation

Planting more trees in cities could cut deaths from summer heat, says study (2023, article in The Guardian)

Climate-wrecking air conditioning units aren’t the only way to survive a heatwave (2022, article in The Guardian)

Metropolis meltdown: the urgent steps we need to take to cool our sweltering cities (2022, article in The Guardian)

Seed banks: the last line of defense against a threatening global food crisis (2022, article in The Guardian)

Can oysters save New York City from the next big storm? (2022, article in The Guardian)

Urban greening can reduce impact of global heating in cities, finds study (2022, article in The Guardian)

Diet for a hotter climate: five plants that could help feed the world (2022, article in The Guardian)

Adapt or die. That is the stark challenge to living in the new world we have made (2021, opinion article in The Guardian)

*Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy (2018, paper by Jem Bendell)

Learning from ecosystems

Goats and sheep deploy their appetites to save Barcelona from wildfires (2022, article in The Guardian)

If we can farm metal from plants, what else can we learn from life on Earth? (2022, article in The Guardian)

Reparations

Rich countries must urgently help poor nations hit by climate crisis, says V20 (2022, article in The Guardian)

Vulnerable countries demand global tax to pay for climate-led loss and damage (2022, article in The Guardian)