Powers of 10: Seeking ‘sweet spots’ for rapid climate and sustainability actions between individual and global scalesShow others and affiliations
2020 (English)In: Environmental Research Letters, E-ISSN 1748-9326, Vol. 15, no 9, article id 094011
Article in journal, Letter (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and related sustainability initiatives will require halving of global greenhouse gas emissions each decade from now on through to 2050, when net zero emissions should be achieved. To reach such significant reductions requires a rapid and strategic scaling of existing and emerging technologies and practices, coupled with economic and social transformations and novel governance solutions. Here we present a new âPowers of 10â (P10) logarithmic framework and demonstrate its potential as a practical tool for decision makers and change agents at multiple scales to inform and catalyze engagement and actions, complementing and adding nuance to existing frameworks. P10 assists in identifying the suitable cohorts and cohort ranges for rapidly deploying climate and sustainability actions between a single individual and the globally projected ⌠10 billion persons by 2050. Applying a robust dataset of climate solutions from Project Drawdownâs Plausible scenario that could cumulatively reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1051 gigatons (Gt) against a reference scenario (2190 Gt) between 2020 and 2050, we seek to identify a âsweet spotâ where these climate and sustainability actions are suitably scaled. We suggest that prioritizing the analyzed climate actions between community and urban scales, where global and local converge, can help catalyze and enhance individual, household and local practices, and support national and international policies and finances for rapid sustainability transformations.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP), 2020. Vol. 15, no 9, article id 094011
Keywords [en]
climate change, Sustainable Development Goals, sustainability challenges, multi-scale climate actions, UNFCCC
National Category
Environmental Sciences
Research subject
Environmental Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-80060DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab9ed0ISI: 000565757900001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85090419943OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-80060DiVA, id: diva2:1463907
2020-09-032020-09-032026-02-12Bibliographically approved