One early inspiration for the Sandwich Climate Action Coalition was Project Drawdown and the 2017 book Drawdown. In March 2020, Project Drawdown released a 104-page Drawdown Review 2020, which updates the 2017 book to “respond nimbly to the rapidly evolving landscape of solutions and the urgency of the challenge humanity faces.”
The main mission stays the same:
to help the world reach “Drawdown”— the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline.
Our plan here, in making this blog a public file cabinet, is to read the entire report and post to the blog as we find the most interesting bits of information. We will start with the report’s ten overriding insights, which we will flesh out as we continue filing posts about this report:
1. We can reach Drawdown by mid-century if we scale the climate solutions already in hand.
2. Climate solutions are interconnected as a system, and we need all of them.
3. Beyond addressing greenhouse gases, climate solutions can have “co-benefits” that contribute to a better, more equitable world.
4. The financial case for climate solutions is crystal clear, as savings significantly outweigh costs.
5. The majority of climate solutions reduce or replace the use of fossil fuels.We must accelerate these solutions, while actively stopping the use of coal, oil, and gas.
6. We cannot reach Drawdown without simultaneously reducing emissions toward zero and supporting nature’s carbon sinks.
7. Some of the most powerful climate solutions receive comparably little attention, reminding us to widen our lens.
8. Accelerators are critical to move solutions forward at the scale, speed, and scope required.
9. Footholds of agency exist at every level, for all individuals and institutions to participate in advancing climate solutions.
10. Immense commitment, collaboration, and ingenuity will be necessary to depart the perilous path we are on and realize the path that’s possible. But the mission is clear: make possibility reality.