We can solve the climate crisis. Here's how...
The One Earth Solutions Framework offers 76 of the most effective science-based solutions to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C and avert ecological disaster using currently available technology.
The One Earth Solutions Framework indexes 76 of the most effective solution pathways based on peer-reviewed scientific literature organized across three broad pillars of collective action—energy transition, nature conservation, and regenerative agriculture. This framework is how we organize the universe of possible levers to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goals, limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C through 2100.
After consultations with more than 100 leading scientists and experts, we identified critical knowledge gaps in understanding how the world can feasibly deliver net zero emissions by mid-century while simultaneously reversing biodiversity extinctions and uplifting the livelihoods of people. This led to three critical inquiries that shaped One Earth’s Solution Framework:
- What is the optimal energy transition by region and sector to achieve the 1.5°C limit, delivering the greatest co-benefits?
- What is the potential of nature conservation and restoration to help solve the climate crisis, ecoregion by ecoregion?
- How can we feed 10 billion people on our current agricultural footprint while cutting food-related emissions by half?
Three corresponding scientific models were developed to help answer these questions, leading to the development of the 76 solution pathways. Explore each solution below, organized by our three-pillar framework. You can also learn more about the seven Intersectional Themes, which link various solutions together and the seven Levers of Change to accelerate the implementation of climate solutions.
Energy Transition
The first pillar of collective action focuses on transforming our energy systems by moving away from fossil fuels and providing 100% clean, renewable energy access to all. A just, equitable transition to 100% renewable energy can be achieved today with widely available technologies, and it will result in a system that is far less expensive than business as usual, creating millions of good long-term jobs, avoiding billions in annual fossil fuel costs, and preventing trillions in climate damages. The energy transition is already underway, but we need to triple investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment and phase out fossil fuel subsidies.
The organization of the energy transition pillar stems from the work of a consortium of 17 scientists from the German Aerospace Center, the University of Technology Sydney, and the University of Melbourne, spearheaded by One Earth. The group produced the world's first high-resolution global energy transition model, Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement Goals (Teske et al. 2019), one of the most downloaded texts in Springer Nature's history. The follow-up model, Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement Goals part 2 (Teske et al. 2022), supported by Rockefeller Foundation, European Climate Foundation, and the Net-Zero Asset Owners Alliance, provides institutional investors with detailed decarbonization benchmarks by industry sub-sector.
One Earth organizes the Energy Transition pillar into four sub-pillars—Renewable Power, Renewable Heat, Renewable Transport, Energy Efficiency—totaling 23 solution pathways.
RENEWABLE POWER
RENEWABLE HEAT
RENEWABLE TRANSPORT
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Nature Conservation
The second pillar of collective action emphasizes the need to protect our natural environments. In order to reverse the biodiversity loss crisis and stabilize our global climate system, we must protect, restore, and connect 50% of Earth's lands and oceans within a Global Safety Net. Remaining land habitats store nearly two trillion tonnes of carbon and absorb one-quarter of annual CO2 emissions. Expanding Indigenous land rights is essential, alongside a moratorium on deforestation and a global effort to restore 350 million hectares of forests on degraded land, providing the necessary carbon removal to achieve the 1.5°C goal.
One Earth developed peer-reviewed research providing a global inventory of all remaining natural lands called A “Global Safety Net” to reverse biodiversity loss and stabilize Earth’s climate (Dinerstein et al. 2020). Published in Science Advances, the Global Safety Net provides country and state-level benchmarks for spatial target setting under the UN’s Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
This, along with additional research on the first spatial model on the technical potential of forest-based carbon removal, informs 24 solution pathways under the Nature Conservation pillar, organized into four sub-pillars—Land Conservation, Ocean Conservation, Ecosystem Restoration, Wildlife Connectivity:
LAND CONSERVATION
OCEAN CONSERVATION
ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION
WILDLIFE CONNECTIVITY
Regenerative Agriculture
The third pillar of collective action focuses on radically transforming how we grow our food. By adopting agricultural and farming practices that restore the health of our soils, we can enhance their ability to draw down and sequester carbon. We can achieve net zero food and fiber systems globally through regenerative agricultural practices, which increase both soil fertility and carbon storage.
Concurrently, we must cut meat consumption and food loss in half, reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, diversify crops, and invest in smallholder farms. By doing so, we can feed ten billion people by mid-century while greatly reducing agricultural emissions—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—and improving human nutrition.
One Earth supported cutting-edge research in regenerative agriculture, including a groundbreaking agricultural AI model to optimize global crop production and nutrition availability, factoring in future climate changes. Our analysis of emerging research in agriculture and sustainable land use has informed four sub-pillars under the Regenerative Agriculture pillar—Regenerative Croplands, Sustainable Rangelands, Food Waste Reduction, Circular Fibersheds—with a total of 29 unique solutions pathways:
REGENERATIVE CROPLANDS
SUSTAINABLE RANGELANDS
FOOD WASTE REDUCTION
CIRCULAR FIBERSHEDS
Intersectional Themes
Beyond the specific solutions in the three pillars of climate action, the One Earth Framework also addresses seven major cross-cutting themes that need to be considered to effectively deploy climate solutions at scale. These themes provide a holistic approach to ensure our solutions are inclusive and equitable.
Levers of Change
Funding opportunities for these climate solutions can deliver impact in a variety of ways. One Earth simplifies the universe of opportunities to seven main levers of change that help shape project development from the outset, as well as key performance indicators to measure the success of projects we support.
Between now and 2030, we estimate that $10 trillion of new funding will move into climate change mitigation from the public and private sectors. At One Earth, we believe philanthropists can play a critical role in helping inform the strategic use of these vitally important flows of new capital. Our Climate Finance Tracker initiative keeps a pulse on climate finance from all sectors—public, private, and philanthropic—and we’re continually supporting new cutting-edge initiatives to help steer decision making in government ministries, financial board rooms, and family offices.