Background: Science:

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) describes the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere during the 20th century as resulting from the growing use of energy and expansion of the global economy. The build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere alters the radiative balance of the atmosphere. The net effect is a warmer Earth surface and a lower atmosphere because greenhouse gases absorb some of the outgoing heat radiation from Earth and reradiating is back to the surface of the earth Earth’s outgoing heat radiation and reradiate it back towards the surface.

Climate Change refers to changes of the climate attributed to directly or indirectly to human activity, altering the composition of the global atmosphere, in addition to the natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. Climate change poses an acute threat to development and the efforts to end poverty. Without urgent action at a global scale, its impact could push an additional 100 million into poverty by 2030.

In 2015, in Paris (COP21), Parties to the UNFCCC reached a landmark agreement to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future. The Paris Agreement builds upon the Convention on Climate Change and – for the first time – brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change by keeping mean temperature rise well below 2 degree Celsius and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so.

The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC ), shows that there is already evidence of the effects of 1 degree C, of global warming through more extreme weather , rising sea levels and the diminishing Arctic sea ice , among other changes. The report also highlights climate change impacts that could be avoided if global warming could be limited to be 1.5 degree Celsius .If this trend continues by 2050, it could mean that as many as 143 million people across three developing regions will become climate migrants, with individuals, families and even whole communities forced to seek more viable and less vulnerable places to live.

There are two main approaches to combating climate change: Climate Change Mitigation and Climate Change Adaptation

Climate Change Mitigation

Mitigation refers to efforts to decrease concentration in the atmosphere of greenhouse gases by enhancing sinks or prevent the emission of greenhouse gasses. There are various ways in which this can be achieved: using new technologies, renewable energy, increasing the efficiency of existing systems and equipment, changing management practices and consumer behavior. There several different types of mitigation actions being carried out globally both on large scale and on small scales such as climate friendly city planning, climate friendly energy generation etc. In the GESI Smarter 2030 report: ICT Solutions for 21st Century Challenges, these were the findings that show the central role Technology plays in providing solutions for the challenges of climate change:

• decrease the emissions in the Information and Communication Technology sector itself through the introduction of more efficient systems and networks (such as being able to reduce global CO2 emissions by 20% by 2030)
• they can reduce emission and provide energy efficiency in other sectors by either substituting for travel and digitization of physical objects and processes.

Current Technology Enabled Mitigation Measures

• Smart grids: These enable response based on demand, control of renewable energy variability and hence the integration of more variable renewable energy and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).
• Carbon capture and storage: Using technologies and techniques, carbon dioxide from fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes are captured and transported via ships or pipes and stored underground in depleted oil and gas fields. This can capture up to 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO₂). The use of carbon capture and storage with renewable biomass is one of the few carbon abatement technolo¬gies that can be used in a 'carbon-negative' mode: ¬– removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it creates (CCSA, 2018)
• Renewable energy: Solar and wind energy are being used at a large scale now, which has extended grids into areas that previously were not able to access power. Renewable energy currently represents 24% of global power generation and 16% of primary power source (IRENA, 2017). Annual global investment in renewables-based power generation technologies already exceeds that in other types of power plants, and these technologies will feature increasingly as an essential element in decarbonizing the power sector. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmpGoappUeE.
• Energy storage technologies: These include batteries, pit storage, molten salts, fly wheels, underground thermal energy storage, compressed air energy storage, thermochemical, chemical hydrogen storage, supercapacitors, solid media storage, semi conducting magnetic energy storage, ice storage, cold water storage, and hot water storage. They eliminate the reduction in output from the energy generating sources and enable greater penetration of variable renewable energy.
• There is a gradual shift from car ownership to car sharing options such as Uber and Lyft and the use of bicycles in some developed countries.
• Remote sensing and on-the-ground technologies, along with widespread use of geospatial analysis, have increased the ability of the sector to monitor and quantify water supply and fluctuations on large scales.
• Modular hybrid sludge digesters for wastewater treatment where nutrients are separated from the water to be used as fertilizer, reducing the energy requirement for wastewater by half.
• Biochar has gained attention as a potential carbon removal option in agricultural lands, mainly cropland. Biochar is produced by heating biomass under anaerobic conditions and can under the right conditions enhance soil fertility and improve soil’s water retention properties while enhancing the soil organic carbon content.
• Grassland carbon sequestration could further contribute to the mitigation effort, with global estimates of about 0.6 GT CO₂-eq per year (FAO, 2018)
• Lab grown meat products that look, taste and feel like real meat made from vegetable protein have the potential of being able to ease the pressure on livestock
• Carbon sequestration: Carbon can be lowered either by reducing emissions or by taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it in terrestrial, oceanic, or freshwater aquatic ecosystems.
• Conversion of biomass to biofuel either through thermal or chemical conversion depending on the end use.

Emerging Disruptive Technology Enabled Mitigation Measures

• Use of blockchain for peer-to-peer trading of clean energy, creating mini grids to remote areas
• Nuclear fusion energy plants: Fusion produces zero GHG. Its physical footprint is lower than that for other sources of renewable energy technologies. Fusion energy is inherently safe, with zero possibility of a meltdown scenario and it has no long-lived waste. There is enough fusion fuel to power the planet for hundreds of millions of years.
• Optimization of traffic flows through smart sensors, GPS, and connected infrastructure.
• An increase in developments such as self-driving cars, cars-to-go, and car-sharing platforms such as Uber and Lyft further enable optimal traffic flows and reduces fuel consumption as well as the number of cars on the road.
• Advances in commercial transportation and logistics can have even stronger effects by connecting dispatch offices with vehicles, load units, and even single products to create optimal efficiency across transport modes and reduce idle times and unused capacity.
• Use of data analytics enabled by the internet of things in fleet management for optimizing routes.
• There is a continuing positive trend in the electrification of Vehicles. Sales of Electric Vehicles continue to increase, with the light-duty electric vehicle market growing by 50% (EVI, 2017) compared with 2015.
• Green freight programs, therefore, have an important role in making transport sustainable. The Global Green Freight Action Plan has expanded its’ programs to Latin America, Asia, and Africa’s Northern Corridor, which is the busiest corridor in East and Central Africa, handling over 30 million tons of cargo through the Port of Mombasa alone (UNFCCC, 2017).
• Smart water management: Using real time data collection and cloud-based monitoring tools to manage water infrastructure.
• Nanotechnology for increasing water availability and water filtration through the incorporation of nanoscale features and nanomaterials into membranes and filters, providing also alternatives to reverse osmosis for desalination.
• Innovative water treatment technologies such as the use of photochemical processes to remove contaminants from water
• Water-consumption tracking, which pairs advanced metering with digital feedback messages, can nudge people toward conservation and reduce consumption by 15 percent in cities where residential water usage is high. Deploying sensors and analytics can cut those losses from leakage. Applications such as pay-as-you-throw digital tracking can reduce the volume of solid waste per capita by 10 to 20 percent. Overall, cities can save 25 to 80 liters of water per person each day and reduce unrecycled solid waste by 30 to 130 kilograms per person annually (McKinsey, 2018).
• Generating biogas at wastewater treatment plants is currently being carried out in Canada and has the potential to offset 2.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents per year.
• 3D printing: would give farmers the ability to print parts for farming machinery or veterinarians the means to provide weight bearing supports for injured livestock.
• Robots could assist in planting and harvesting and in the monitoring of seed growth and soil health, which will lead to a reduction in labor costs. For livestock, there are already herder bots, tested by the Australian Center for Field Robotics for rounding up cattle.
• Artificial intelligence and sensors: Sensors are being used in both crop production and livestock production for various purposes: checking animal health, weather, etc.
• Augmented reality aids farmers in disease/insect detection and pest management on farms. This will assist farmers to identify disease and pests and implement an intelligent pest control management system using which farmers can maximize their harvest.
• Drones: The use of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones as they are commonly known is gradually becoming widespread, for various purposes: in soil and field analysis, planting, crop spraying, monitoring, irrigation, and crop health assessment
• Precision Irrigation: Demands on food production going forward require more efficiency along the entire chain; this is where precision irrigation based on information supplied by water providers using monitoring and sensing technologies comes into place.
• Optimized farm management and automated irrigation systems: precision agriculture, including machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, Internet of Things, soil sensors, satellites, and integrated real-time weather information; traceability and tracking systems

• 5G networks: 5G will enable low-cost, low-power sensors to be embedded in buildings, appliances, and vehicles. It will be a key enabler of the Internet of Things and mobile financial services.
• Blockchain: With blockchain, urban planning will be more inclusive by setting up a new system of incentives to expand the focus of developers and other urban players from profit alone to whatever parameters planners want to emphasize. Blockchain can be used to optimize crop production and help reduce the likelihood of food security issues in the transportation and distribution of agricultural produce.
• Artificial intelligence/Big Data: This will enable the building of smarter cities by providing an improvement in information accuracy for more efficient decision making in urban planning and transportation. e.g., smart buildings, smart parking, etc.
• Autonomous vehicles: It is projected that if vehicles are automated but not electrified or shared, GHG emissions from the transport sector would go up 50% by 2050 compared to business as usual. If shared, electrified, and automated vehicles are widely adopted, GHG emissions from the from the transport sector could plunge by 80%, based on a study conducted by the University of California, Davis in 2017.
• Production of fuel from carbon dioxide: This refers to taking carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and then using it to produce fuel. According to the company currently piloting this, Carbon Engineering, direct air capture can remove far more CO₂ per acre of land than trees and plants, for transportation fuel production. The company is currently running in Canada and captures a ton of CO₂ per day from the air (Carbon Engineering, 2018).
• Columbia University has developed artificial trees that are coated with a sticky resin that makes them 1000 times more efficient at capturing CO₂ from the air than natural trees. The resin and CO₂ can then be washed off and transported and stored. The advantage of an artificial tree is that it can be deployed anywhere. However, artificial trees currently use a substantial amount of energy and water and would need to be positioned close to a reliable supply of those inputs.