The
science
How Patch is making meaningful climate action everyone’s business

Our planet is out of balance

Since 1880, our atmosphere has warmed by 1.1º C due to human activity.1 The consequences are already hazardous: record heat waves, intensified storms, droughts, and mass extinctions of plants and animals.

We must limit warming to 1.5ºC to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change — the first step toward rebalancing the planet.

Reducing emissions isn’t enough

According to the IPCC, there’s no pathway to holding global warming to 1.5°C by reducing emissions alone.2
Even restoring Earth’s natural decarbonization systems won’t get us all the way there.
All paths to a rebalanced planet require global-scale carbon removal technologies.

All three approaches are necessary

Reducing emissions is critical

Every country, organization, and person must reduce their carbon emissions as much and as rapidly as possible. This is the most important step. No plan will be successful without dramatic emissions reductions.

Restoring natural systems is vital

Our planet has built-in systems to regulate the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. By restoring the balance of our oceans, forests, and landmass, we can rely on these natural systems to help bring the planet back to balance.

Engineered carbon removal is essential

We’ll need engineered carbon removal projects like Direct Air Capture (DAC) alongside long-lived, durable sequestration solutions. We already have technology to do this, but we’ll need to scale it up quickly.

Reducing emissions isn’t enough

Reducing
Emissions reduction technology like renewable energy and methane capture produce credits for carbon the project helps avoid emitting where cheaper, fossil fuel-based alternatives are still king. Those credits bridge the incentive gap to encourage the investment that will bring them to commercial scale.
Restoring
Historically, markets haven’t accounted for the massive climate costs associated with deforestation or polluting our oceans and soil, forcing future generations to pay the bill. Carbon credits are a mechanism to incentivize the preservation of natural ecosystems, which maintain and restore the balance of our planet.
Removing
Our species has spent centuries engineering technological and financial systems that have knocked the planet out of balance. Now we have only years to reengineer them to restore it. With the monetization provided by selling carbon credits, solutions like Direct Air Capture can become viable at commercial scale to remove and durably sequester millions of tonnes of CO₂.

Trusted climate projects that create real change

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