How to Mitigate Climate Change
Learn how the world can lower greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the threat from climate change.
What is Climate Mitigation?
In the context of climate change, mitigation refers to the policies and actions that are meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit future warming.
World leaders have already agreed to reduce emissions enough to limit global warming to well-below 2°C, and try to keep it below 1.5°C, by the end of this century. However, the world is not on track to hit those goals, which require more mitigation.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific body of the United Nations that assesses the world’s progress on mitigation. It also examines the impacts from climate change and outlines options for how to address those risks.
When tracking the world’s greenhouse gases, the IPCC breaks up emissions into five sectors:
- Agriculture, forestry, and other land use
- Buildings
- Energy systems
- Industry
- Transportation
This learning journey explores the different ways humans emit greenhouse gases in each of these IPCC sectors, as well as the opportunities and challenges for reducing those emissions.