Climate restoration
Climate restoration is the
Climate restoration enhances legacy climate goals (stabilizing Earth's climate) to include ensuring the survival of humanity by restoring CO2 to levels of the last 6000 years that allowed agriculture and civilization to develop.
Restoration and mitigation
Climate restoration is the goal underlying
Climate restoration as a policy goal
A first peer-reviewed article about climate restoration was published in April 2018 by the Rand Corporation. [8] The analysis "examines climate restoration through the lens of risk management under conditions of deep uncertainty, exploring the technology, economic, and policy conditions under which it might be possible to achieve various climate restoration goals and the conditions under which society might be better off with (rather than without) a climate restoration goal." One key finding of the study is that it would be possible to restore the CO2 atmospheric concentrations to preindustrial levels at an acceptable cost under two scenarios, where greenhouse gas reductions and direct air capture (DAC) technologies prove to be economically efficient. One example is Carbon Engineering, a Canadian-based clean energy company focussing on the commercialization of Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere.
One key recommendation of the Rand Corporation study is that an ambitious climate restoration goal may seek to achieve preindustrial concentration by 2075, or by the end of the century. It concludes that "The best we can do is pursue climate restoration with a passion while embedding it in a process of testing, experimentation, correction, and discovery."
On September 25, 2018, Rep. Jamie Raskin introduced a resolution on Climate Restoration to the U.S House Committee of Energy and Commerce, concluding with "Whereas scientists have researched methods for keeping warming below 2°C, but have not yet researched the best methods to remove all excess CO2, stop sea-level rise, and restore a safe and healthy climate for future generations; and whereas declaring a goal of restoring a safe and healthy climate will encourage scientists to research the most effective ways to restore safe CO2 levels, stop sea-level rise, and restore a safe and healthy climate for future generations." This was followed by the Congressional Climate Emergency Resolutions (S.Con.Res.22, H.Con.Res.52) which "demands a national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization of the resources and labor of the United States at a massive-scale to halt, reverse, mitigate, and prepare for the consequences of the climate emergency and to restore the climate for future generations...." [10] [11]
On August 23, 2023, the California Senate passed SR-34, the nation's first resolution to explicitly recognize climate restoration as a policy priority [12] It concludes: "WHEREAS, Climate restoration will benefit the people of the State of California by reducing losses and damage from wildfires, while producing positive effects on human and ecosystem health, industry, and jobs in agriculture and other sectors; now, therefore, be it resolved by the Senate of the State of California, That the Senate formally recognizes the obligation to future generations to restore a safe climate, and declares climate restoration, along with achieving net-zero and net-negative CO2 emissions, a climate policy priority; and be it further resolved, That the Senate calls on the State Air Resources Board to engage necessary federal entities as appropriate to urge the United States Ambassador to the United Nations to propose a climate treaty that would restore and stabilize GHG levels as our common climate goal."
Critical parameters
The endpoint goal of climate restoration is to generally maximize the probability of survival of our species and civilization by restoring Atmospheric CO2 levels. The approximate target levels are those of the Holocene norm in which our species and civilization most recently evolved. That is stated technically as "pre-industrial", or poetically as "like our grandparents had a hundred years ago". Numerically the goal is stated as getting atmospheric CO2 back below the highest levels humans have actually survived long-term, 300 ppm, by 2050. Achieving this will require permanently removing approximately a trillion tonnes of atmospheric CO2.
Critical parameters of the Earth System include:
- levels of climate forcing agents in the atmosphere, especially CO2 and methanefor positive forcing and SO2 aerosol for negative forcing;
- global mean surface temperature (compared to some baseline) and its rate of increase;
- sea level and the rate that sea level is rising;[13]
- pH and rate of ocean acidification.
- Ice levels of the polar ice caps.[14]
One of the principal goals for climate restoration is to bring the CO2 level down from current level of ~420 ppm (2022) towards its pre-industrial level of ~280 ppm. Not only will this reduce CO2's global warming effect but also its effect on ocean acidification. The removed carbon would be sequestered or used as a construction material.
Climate restoration open letter
On November 13, 2020, an open letter, put together by the youth organisation Worldward, calling for climate restoration was published in the Guardian newspaper.
Climate Restoration publications
White Paper
On September 17, 2019, the Foundation for Climate Restoration published a White Paper on existing Climate Restoration solutions and developing technologies. These solutions and technologies include proven, commercially viable projects, such as creating synthetic rock from carbon captured in the air for use in construction and paving, as well as emerging methods for removing and storing carbon, restoring oceans and fisheries. The White Paper also discusses Climate Restoration strategy and costs.[17] A main goal of the Foundation for Climate Restoration is the reduction of atmospheric CO2 to below 300 ppm (i.e. near its pre-industrial level)[18] by 2050.
Climate Restoration: The Only Future That Will Sustain the Human Race
Authored by
Limitations
Not every aspect of the Earth System can be returned to a previous state: notably the warming of the deep sea or deep ocean and the associated sea level rise which has already taken place may be essentially irreversible this century. Conversely, there are certain aspects of the Earth System that need to be improved with respect to the recent past: notably food productivity, considering an increased global population by 2050 or 2100.
Key organisations
- Worldward [20]
- Foundation for Climate Restoration
- Global Coalition for Climate Restoration
- The Climate Foundation
References
- ISSN 0362-4331.
- ^
America's Climate Choices: Panel on Advancing the Science of Climate Change; National Research Council (2010). Advancing the Science of Climate Change. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press. global warmingis very likely due to human activities.
- ISBN 9780521493918.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
- The Global Carbon Capture and Storage institute. 2011. Archived from the originalon 2013-09-28. Retrieved 2011-09-10.
- ISBN 0-309-07434-7.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ "What they don't tell you about climate change". The Economist.
- ^ Robert J. Lempert; Giacomo Marangoni; Klaus Keller; Jessica Duke. "Is Climate Restoration an appropriate policy goal?". Rand Corporation.
- ^ "United States House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis / About". United States House of Representatives. 2019. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Crediting Shawna Faison and House Creative Services.
- ^ "Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States is committed to ensuring a safe and healthy climate for future generations, and to creating solutions for restoring the climate".
- ^ "Expressing the sense of Congress that there is a climate emergency".
- ^ "Relative to climate restoration".
- ^ "Climate Change Indicators in the United States: Sea level". United States Environmental Protection Agency. May 2014.
- ^ Matt, William. "It might be possible to refreeze the ice caps to slow global warming". Phys.org.
- ^ "Hitting net zero is not enough – we must restore the climate". the Guardian.
- ^ "Hitting Net Zero is Not Enough - We Must Restore the Climate". Worldward. 2020. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
- ^ "Climate Restoration White Paper" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-11-18. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
- ^ "Foundation for Climate Restoration Announces Global Launch- 300 ppm by 2050". globenewswire.com/.
- ^ "Climate Restoration— The Only Future that Will Sustain the Human Race". April 2022.
- ^ "Worldward Website".