Mitigation Strategies

Mitigation means reducing the causes of climate change, principally by cutting greenhouse gas emissions or by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Because carbon dioxide persists for a long time, the total amount emitted over time matters more than the emissions in any single year, so the goal of mitigation is to reach a point where the world adds no more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than it removes, a state described as net zero. Reaching net zero requires action across energy, industry, transport, agriculture, and land use, and no single solution is sufficient on its own.

The largest source of emissions is the burning of fossil fuels for energy, so decarbonizing energy supply is the foundation of mitigation. Renewable sources such as solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines