BaCCC/Module 4/Lesson 1/Part 1

Module 4, Lesson 1: Ways of Mitigating Climate Change, Part 1

Climate change mitigation icon

Introduction

After introducing you to the definition of mitigation, this lesson will briefly suggest how climate change can be mitigated. This is to ensure that everybody is aware of how they contribute to safeguarding – or threatening – the future. Some of these mitigation strategies can also negatively impact the world’s most vulnerable people.

Climate change mitigation involves identifying ways to reduce heat-trapping gas emissions, as well as finding ways to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Humans have many choices to reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions. We can mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a variety of ways. These include promoting greater energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy, as well as building more sustainable urban transport. As land, forests and oceans absorb and store carbon, we also need to adopt smarter ways to preserve and restore these “carbon sinks.”

Climate change is already affecting weather patterns, water resources, crop yields and marine ecosystems. Adaptation (see more in Module 6) helps people cope with increased risks to their lives and livelihoods from the changing climate. However, the poor and other marginalised people who are least able to cope are the hardest hit (see more in Module 5). Increasingly, policymakers are recognising the need to integrate climate-resilient strategies into long-term development programmes.

Lesson Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

• identify strategies that lead to efficient and effective mitigation of climate change;
• discuss the possible negative impacts of some mitigation strategies on the world’s most vulnerable people; and
• recognise false solutions to climate change and why they are not expected to work.

Terminology

The following terms are important in understanding the science behind climate change. If you want to remember them, write their meanings in your learning journal as you encounter them in the course content.

• adaptation
• carbon sinks
• climate-resilience
• marginalised
• mitigation
• vulnerable

Adaptation vs Mitigation Climate Change Solutions (2:44)

Before getting started, you may like to watch this short video on adaptation versus mitigation,

Adaptation vs Mitigation Climate Change Solutions (2:44)

(You can adjust the playback speed and/or turn on subtitles/captions.)

If you have trouble accessing the video, a summary is available below.

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Resolving climate injustice

Activity

Read the following short article:

Children at Risk of Cholera in Aftermath of Cyclone Freddy

Next, read the scenario below and then answer the questions in your learning journal. (You might want to do a bit of research or even add to your responses as you go through this module.)

Joseph has grown up in Chikwawa, a district in Southern Malawi in Africa. Every year during the rainy season, their area experiences floods. These floods have been increasing each year to such an extent that most parts of the district become unhabitable. Families lose their property, such as homes and livestock, and even loved ones who are swept away by the waters.

Joseph has a cousin, Mathias, who lives in Blantyre – the commercial centre of Malawi and the second-largest city in the country. Mathias’s home has electricity that his family uses for light during the night and for cooking. Of late, they have been experiencing a lot of blackouts, as the country’s power producer is failing to cope with demand. When rains come, most times, the generating machines are shut down, as there is a lot of debris that is carried downstream from the highlands. The little streams in the locations of Blantyre also fill to the brim during the rainy season, up to the point of destroying houses, bridges, cars and even roads.

a) What has caused some changes in the way floods are occurring in the Chikwawa district? b) Why are the small streams in Blantyre filled to the brim during the rainy season? c) What can people do to ensure that there is a continuous supply of electricity to their homes?

According to the United Nations, there are several ways that individuals, families and communities can mitigate climate change. (If some of these strategies do not make sense to you or are irrelevant to the way your family lives, simply use them as a starting point for thinking about appropriate strategies for your situation.)

1) Speak up by advocating for changes to the energy system. Tell companies that if they want their products to be bought, they need to be energy efficient, use renewable energy and minimise waste. Make caring about climate change and the environment normal by talking about the things you do to mitigate climate change. Your voice could have more power and influence than you think.

2) Use renewable energy. The most direct and long-term cost-saving approach is to install solar panels at your home. If you cannot do that, you can take part in community solar by purchasing a panel or subscribing to a solar farm. Sign up for an electricity supplier that uses wind energy and other renewables. Advocate for your community to install more renewable energy infrastructure on the roofs of public buildings.

3) Electrify your home. If our utility companies switch to low-carbon sources for generating electricity, then we all can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by running various systems with electricity instead of fossil fuels. Switch to a heat pump for heating and cooling your home. Heat pumps run on electricity instead of burning fossil fuels, and they are highly energy efficient. The upfront installation costs can be high, but heat pumps can save you a lot of money in the long run.

4) Conserve energy. In a fossil fuel-based society, using energy leads to greenhouse gas emissions. And even clean, low-carbon energy sources cause some environmental degradation. It is critical that we find ways to use less energy. Influence businesses and industry by letting them know you want them to be energy efficient. When it is time to replace appliances, buy the most energy-efficient ones you can afford. Switch to LED light bulbs and other energy-saving devices.

5) Conserve water. We have lots of good reasons not to waste water, and conserving energy is one of them. It takes a lot of energy to clean and purify water, pump it out to buildings and pump the wastewater back to be cleaned again. That energy use leads to greenhouse gas emissions. Check for leaks and fix them quickly. Avoid watering your lawn, and use only the minimum water you need for your garden. Use a low-flow shower head and faucet aerators. Replacing a toilet? Choose a dual flush or low-flow one. Monitor your water use – check your water bills.

6) Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle electronics, clothes and other consumer goods instead of throwing them away. What we buy causes carbon emissions at each point in production, from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing and transporting goods to market. Buy fewer things, shop second-hand, repair what you can and recycle.

7) Change your transportation. Reduce driving by walking and biking instead and using shared transportation – public or private. Choose destinations (for work, school, shopping or recreation) that are closer to home.

8) Help conserve and restore forests. Forests excel at taking in and storing carbon. They also provide habitats for our non-human relatives, clean our water and air, prevent flooding and soil erosion, and much more. Call for the end to clearcut logging and deforestation. Advocate for selective logging. Get involved in forest restoration projects. Plant trees. Use fabric replacements for paper towels. Use recycled toilet paper (or washable cloths).

9) Practise climate-friendly gardening. Stop using gasoline-powered power tools. Try not to use pesticides. Instead, plant native species of flowers to attract beneficial insects. Minimise the use of synthetic fertilisers; they can lead to emissions of nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. Use cover crops over the winter to keep carbon in the soil. Buy locally grown plants and garden products to minimise transportation emissions. Grow plants that shade your house to keep it cool in summer (and reduce your air conditioner use, if you have one).

10) Reduce greenhouse gas emissions through your food choices. Eat less industrially raised meat and more plant-based foods. Reduce food waste. Bring your own take-home container to a restaurant to take home leftovers, and avoid using disposable containers and utensils. One-time-use containers waste resources and energy, leading to greenhouse gas emissions. Compost uneaten food instead of sending it to a landfill where it releases methane (another powerful greenhouse gas) when it decomposes.

— Adapted from

Start with These Ten Actions!

Back in 2012, the United States wasted more than half of the energy that flowed in its economy – enough to power the United Kingdom for seven years (CleanTechnica, 2013). You can see the graphic at: US Wastes 61-86% of Its Energy Learn about negawatts (https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/energy-efficiency/whats-a-negawatt/), which are watts of energy that are saved (are not needed) because of energy conservation. What's a Megawatt?

Activity

Choose one of the ten mitigation strategies above that interests you. Discuss it with your family, and help them to see the importance of it (if they do not already). At this time, you are not trying to convince them to adopt the strategy; just discuss it. In your learning journal, record the main points that come up in this conversation, including any challenges to mitigation that are raised. As a climate champion, you will want to know what objections people have when they are asked to help mitigate climate change.

Back in 1992, something momentous happened. At the Rio Earth Summit in Brazil, practically every country in the world agreed to the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC, which is “to prevent dangerous anthropogenic [human-caused] interference with the climate system.”

According to the IPCC, this meant that the world was going to work together (well, that was the intention at least) to avoid significant human interference with the Earth’s climate and “to stabilize greenhouse gas levels in a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.”

Sadly, politics got in the way of our scientific understanding that we all had to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, so the emissions kept going up instead of going down.

But it is important to realise that the responsibility for mitigation is not all on your shoulders, or your family’s, or your community’s or even your country’s. The mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions must take place at all levels and in all sectors of human endeavour. Governments at every level must do their part. Every small business, company, corporation or multinational must drastically reduce their contributions. Every sector. Practically every mode of transportation, including aviation and shipping, has to change. Every type of energy production: oil, gas, coal and even the manufacture of renewable energy infrastructure. Shops, factories, schools, recreation centres, farms . . . everyone in every community.

And now, here is the secret: We must ALL get to (virtually) zero carbon. We must create a world that runs on zero-carbon energy, zero-carbon manufacturing, zero-carbon transportation, etc. – or our world, according to an increasing number of climate scientists and the United Nations, will become unliveable. The 2021/22 IPCC report warned that “parts of the planet will become uninhabitable” and there is a “rapidly closing window” to safeguard the future. However, scientists also said that “there are multiple, feasible and effective options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to human-caused climate change, and they are available now.” This report, according to the IPCC Chair, Hoesung Lee, underscored the urgency of taking more ambitious action. “If we act now,” he said, “we can still secure a liveable, sustainable future for all” (IPCC, 2021−2023).

The reason that politics got in the way of mitigation is that some politicians started thinking that every other country should cut their emissions first. But greenhouse gases have not been emitted equally. Read on to discover why some countries and corporations need to urgently embrace energy austerity (severe restrictions), while others – less responsible for today’s dangerous levels of greenhouse gas concentrations – deserve (and may need) more time to get to zero.