Global Ecovillage Network/Solution Library/Climate mitigation

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It is crucial for everyone nowadays to know more about mitigation as the concept is not generally well known. Climate mitigation is any action taken to permanently eliminate or reduce the long-term risk and hazards of climate change to human life and property.

Climate change mitigation involves actions that limit the magnitude and/or rate of long-term climate change. Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human (anthropogenic) emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks, e.g., through reforestation. By contrast, adaptations to climate change are actions taken to manage the eventual (or unavoidable) impacts of global warming, e.g., by building dikes in response to sea level rise.

Examples of mitigation include switching to low-carbon energy sources, such as renewables, and expanding forests and other 'sinks' to remove greater amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Energy efficiency can also play a major role, for example, through improving the insulation of buildings. Another approach to climate change mitigation is geoengineering. Most geoengineering techniques can be organized into two categories.

The first category is called solar radiation management, which involves either reducing incoming sunlight, or increasing the reflectivity (albedo) of the Earth's surface to sunlight. however, this type of management is still unproven and has potential knock on effects that may be detrimental to ecosystems. The second category is called carbon dioxide removal, which involves reducing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, e.g., by increasing the capacity of the oceans to absorb carbon from the atmosphere.

Scientific understanding of geoengineering is currently limited, and there is the risk of unknown side-effects.

• Leadership & Governance.

• Seeds, Food & Soil.

• http://www.unep.org/climatechange/mitigation/*