Project Drawdown: We Need New Strategic Solutions for Climate
Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown echoes Paris agreement architect and climate diplomat Christiana Figueres’ recent statements, in his call for bold new climate leadership. Both agree communities and the real economy – no longer geopolitics – are the real drivers of climate mitigation and are now setting the direction for climate action.
In his opening insight for 2025, Jonathan Foley sets a vision of an expansive, bolder, view of climate leadership includes all members of civil society, from grassroots organizations to business, technology, media, and popular culture.
He also calls for new strategic solutions. How to unlock more effective climate action? He suggests the following principles:
Appreciate the time value of carbon. Acting now has cumulative impacts and emergency break solutions provide significant impacts in the near term.
Focus on the most critical geographic locations. Data leads the way here, including from sources such as ClimateTRACE and Project Drawdown’s upcoming Drawdown Explorer which brings geospatial intelligence to bear on the most impactful climate solutions in target regions.
Give more attention to the co-benefits of solutions. Not only does this paint a more holistic picture of integrated solutions, but it also presents an opportunity to bring in more actors, agency, and support to the climate movement, accelerating action and bringing greater prosperity to people and the planet.
At BOLD Earth Collective, we love Project Drawdown’s mission advance science-based strategies and solutions, foster climate leadership, and promote new voices across the climate movement. Their Solutions Library is a favourite of ours and a great resource to assess a given solution’s impact on emissions globally, in line with scenarios of 2˚C and 1.5˚C warming.