Search Climate Insights Directory
58 documents from Project Drawdown
Climate Science Serves America and Beyond
The text asserts that the United States has pioneered modern climate science and cornerstone innovations in renewable energy and battery storage, which provide economic and security benefits. It warns that shifting federal priorities are creating challenges for funding and institutional support, urging a reinforcement of these resources to ensure future American progress and global leadership.
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Document type: Statement
Better windows are great for the climate and for your comfort
The guide outlines how window upgrades—including multi-pane glass, low-emissivity coatings, and air sealing—reduce heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer, thereby lowering energy bills and carbon footprints. It also highlights non-replacement budget strategies like heat-shrink films and strategic shading to improve energy efficiency.
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Document type: Guide
Five ways to take climate action at work, brainstormed by employees like you
The guide outlines five ways employees can drive climate action at work: reducing office food waste to mitigate methane emissions, engaging clients and customers in sustainability discussions, vetting service providers to avoid supporting high-emitting industries, advocating for fossil-fuel-free retirement plans, and developing internal department-specific climate action guides.
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Document type: Guide
Five things to look for at the Bonn Climate Conference
The briefing outlines five critical focus areas for the Bonn Climate Conference: establishing indicators for the Global Goal on Adaptation, defining holistic food and agriculture systems, developing a new gender action plan, resolving impasses on the 'just transition' work stream, and mobilizing climate finance for low- and middle-income countries.
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Document type: Briefing
Deploy Enhanced Rock Weathering
Enhanced rock weathering is identified as a scientifically sound carbon removal method that accelerates the natural breakdown of rocks like basalt and olivine to capture CO2. While it offers potential for large-scale deployment and soil improvement, it is currently deemed not ready for large-scale use due to high costs, unpredictable effectiveness, and complex monitoring requirements.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Deploy Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) are factory-built reactors with capacities under 300 MW that offer potential for flexible, low-carbon power and industrial heat. While the Nuclear Energy Agency projects a global market of 375 GW by 2050 that could avoid 15 Gt of cumulative CO2 emissions, SMRs remain in the demonstration phase. Significant barriers include high costs—estimated by Wood Mackenzie at US$6,000 to US$8,000 per kilowatt—which far exceed those of solar and wind power, as well as regulatory hurdles, waste disposal issues, and long deployment timelines that may limit their near-term impact on the energy transition.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Climate Solutions At Work
The document argues that traditional corporate climate leadership, focused on 'net zero' and offsets, is insufficient to address the climate crisis. It introduces the 'Drawdown-Aligned Business Framework,' which urges employees to advocate for comprehensive changes across eight leverage points: emissions reductions, stakeholder engagement, procurement, investments, disclosures, policy advocacy, business model transformation, and long-term thinking. The guide emphasizes that every job must become a 'climate job' and that companies must prioritize climate justice and the elimination of fossil fuel dependencies to achieve drawdown—the point when atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations begin to steadily decline.
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Document type: Guide
We Need Synergies, Not Silos, to Solve Humanity’s Greatest Challenges
The authors advocate for 'nexus solutions' that provide multiple benefits across climate, nature, and human health, citing clean cooking as a primary example of a 'triple-win' intervention.
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Document type: Statement
Protect Peatlands
The report identifies peatland protection as an 'emergency brake' climate solution due to the high carbon density of these ecosystems, which store approximately 600 Gt of carbon. It estimates that protecting one hectare of peatland avoids between 0.92 and 13.47 t CO-eq/ha/yr, with the highest impact in tropical and subtropical regions. The net cost is estimated at US$1.5/ha/yr, or $0.25/t CO-eq avoided. While approximately 22% of global peatlands are in protected areas (PAs), the report suggests an achievable protection range of 70–90% of remaining undrained peatlands, which could reduce emissions by 1.3–1.7 Gt CO-eq/yr. The analysis emphasizes the critical role of Indigenous peoples' lands, which contain an additional 186 Mha of peatlands, and advocates for secure land tenure and community-led governance to ensure permanence and avoid leakage.
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Document type: Research paper
A Drawdown Roadmap for Food, Agriculture, and Land Use in Southeast Asia
The report identifies opportunities to reduce direct emissions from the food, agriculture, and land use (FALU) sector in Southeast Asia by 1.9 billion tons of CO2-eq per year. It highlights that FALU is responsible for 54% of the region's total greenhouse gas emissions, with deforestation and peatland degradation acting as the primary drivers. The analysis emphasizes 'hotspots' where targeted interventions—such as protecting 20% of carbon-dense forests or improving rice cultivation on 20% of farms—can yield disproportionately high emissions savings. Key solutions include legal forest protection, non-continuous flooding in rice paddies, and improved nitrogen fertilizer management. The report also discusses indirect solutions like shifting diets toward the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet and reducing food loss and waste, while detailing co-benefits such as improved air quality, water security, and enhanced farmer incomes.
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Document type: Report
Together We Can and Must Stand Up for Science, Effective Climate Action, and a Better Future
Project Drawdown emphasizes the necessity of bold, science-based action to address the climate crisis. The organization focuses on identifying and freely sharing solutions with proven effectiveness and scalability, while warning against the tendency to invest in unproven schemes over ready-to-go solutions.
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Document type: Statement
How marketers can communicate net zero claims to regain consumer trust
The document argues that terms like "net zero" and "carbon neutral" are often meaningless to consumers and prone to greenwashing, particularly when they rely on offsets or distant targets. It advises marketers to prioritize immediate emissions cuts over long-term goals and to use plain, truthful language to maintain consumer trust.
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Document type: Guide
Standing up for science and climate action, now more than ever
Project Drawdown asserts its commitment to science-based climate action and the defense of scientific evidence against disinformation, particularly in anticipation of the Trump administration's likely promotion of fossil fuels and weakening of environmental laws. The organization intends to shift its focus toward celebrating climate leadership found in cities, towns, private companies, and community-led initiatives rather than federal leadership.
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Document type: Statement
10 tips for bringing climate change solutions into the classroom
The guide outlines strategies for educators to embed climate change solutions into diverse subjects, from K-12 to graduate school. Key recommendations include utilizing local examples, inviting diverse guest speakers to demonstrate various career pathways, using simulations and games, and encouraging student-led projects and engagement with local government. The author emphasizes the importance of science-informed optimism and helping students find their personal purpose within the climate movement.
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Document type: Guide
Supercharging national climate plans
Project Drawdown analyzed the NDCs of eight African countries—Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda—to identify synergies between climate mitigation and socioeconomic development. While all eight countries acknowledge poverty and gender mainstreaming, only Congo, Malawi, and Rwanda explicitly link climate solutions to specific human well-being dimensions. The analysis identifies 14 frequently cited solutions, such as Clean Cooking and Distributed Solar Photovoltaics, but notes the omission of other high-impact 'double-duty' solutions like Reduced Food Waste and Family Planning and Education. The report argues for recognizing Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) actions as both mitigation and adaptation tools and diversifying decentralized renewable energy to combat energy poverty in rural communities.
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Document type: Research paper
How to talk to kids about climate change
The document outlines a three-part approach to discussing climate change with children: listening to their concerns to manage eco-anxiety, providing reassurance through the existence of global solutions, and using visual and interactive tools to make invisible climate processes understandable.
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Document type: Guide
What's the best climate action you can take?
The guide argues against one-size-fits-all climate action lists, instead encouraging individuals to audit their own habits in four key areas: diet, electricity use, travel, and home temperature regulation. It highlights the environmental impact of agriculture, fossil-fuel electricity, and transportation, offering specific practical steps—such as shifting to plant-rich diets, upgrading to LED bulbs, and reducing air travel—to lower personal greenhouse gas emissions.
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Document type: Guide
World leaders can no longer afford to overlook black carbon
The document highlights the severe economic and health costs of black carbon, noting that in China, short-term exposure in 2017 cost over US$7.5 billion and long-term exposure over US$53 billion. It asserts that reducing black carbon is a "triple win" that would protect glaciers, save millions of lives—including over 400,000 annually in India and nearly half a million in Sub-Saharan Africa—and improve gender equality by reducing the US$800 billion annual loss in women's productivity caused by unclean cooking fuels. Despite these benefits, the author notes that only 12 countries included black carbon targets in their first Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and warns that transportation-related emissions in Africa could double by 2040.
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Document type: Statement
CLEAN COOKING AN “EMERGENCY BRAKE” CLIMATE SOLUTION WITH UNPARALLELED CO-BENEFITS
The document identifies clean cooking as an "emergency brake" climate solution capable of reducing global cumulative emissions by 10% by 2040 if annual investments reach US$10 billion. It highlights the severe impacts of polluting fuels—including 3.2 million premature deaths annually and the emission of black carbon—while detailing co-benefits such as improved maternal and child health, reduced deforestation, and enhanced gender equality. The brief calls for a shift from case-by-case funding to innovative financing mechanisms and national-level policy integration to reach universal access by 2030.
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Document type: Policy brief
Reducing black carbon: A triple win for climate, health, and well-being
Black carbon (BC), or soot, is a potent short-lived climate pollutant resulting from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. The report identifies the residential and transportation sectors as the primary sources, with China and India as the largest emitters. It highlights a 'triple win' of reducing BC: slowing global warming (particularly in the Arctic and Himalayas), preventing millions of premature deaths, and avoiding trillions in economic losses. Key recommendations include scaling clean cooking in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, retrofitting diesel engines with particulate filters, regulating shipping fuels, and incorporating BC into national climate plans (NDCs).
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Document type: Report