Solving Climate Change

Returning Earth to a stable and healthy climate will require unprecedented and rapid changes around the globe. This book frames the climate problem in a comprehensive way and cuts through common conceptual confusions that impede rapid action.

The first chapter describes the history, nature, and scope of the climate problem, using concise framing from Kimberly Nicholas: it's warming, it's us, we're sure, it's bad, we can fix it (but we'd better hurry). The second chapter describes how to stabilize the climate by ending fossil fuels, minimizing non-fossil emissions, and creating a climate-positive biosphere.

The authors identify five technical pillars of climate action needed to stabilize the climate, each of which gets its own chapter. These include electrifying (almost) everything, decarbonizing the electricity grid, minimizing non-fossil emissions, promoting efficiency and optimization ("emissions efficiency"), and removing carbon from the atmosphere. The book then moves beyond the narrow technical and policy focus of most previous climate solutions work by detailing three more "institutional" pillars that require action: aligning incentives, mobilizing money, and elevating truth.

This book grew out of the authors' combined decades of experience in studying and implementing climate solutions around the world. They hope that this material will help learners and leaders grasp the full spectrum of solutions necessary to truly face our climate challenge.