Actions to Mitigate Climate Change
Private sector innovation
Government projects and choices
Personal choices
How every section is connected in the context of mitigating climate change
Companies whose main product is actively mitigating climate change.
Large companies
Startups
Tesla is by far the largest manufacturer of fully electric cars that have become very popular
Beyond Meat makes plant based alternatives for meat which is commonly used by fast food chains and other restaurants for vegan and vegetarian alternatives to meat containing meals
Greyparrot has an AI system that monitors and sorts waste into its appropriate categories.
ByFusion makes construction bricks for building that are made out of used plastic. These bricks are durable and there is no waste when making them.
ZeroAvia makes hydrogen-electric engines for airplanes. These engines are much more sustainable and greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in aviation.
Large companies who are doing a lot to mitigate their impact on climate change
Alphabet the parent company of Google became carbon neutral almost 15 years ago and is now the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy which accounts for an annual deficit of around five million tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
HP. By 2025, the company plans to eliminate 75% of its single-use plastic packaging. They also launched the HP Sustainable Forest Collaborative with the World Wildlife Fund to "create a forest positive future for printing."
Johnson & Johnson has promised to make all their packaging recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025 and all their facilities run 100% on renewable energy by 2050.
Much of the private sector has committed to innovating to mitigate climate change and to mitigate their own impact on it. We need to use the private sector to further innovate new technologies and seek ways to mitigate climate change.
International agreements
The Paris Agreement
According to the United Nations, The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties (including Canada) at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.
Promises form the Canadian Government to mitigate climate change.
Source: Climate change adaptation plans and actions
The problem is that unfortunately the Federal Government does not usually deliver on their promises, at least not to the same budget or results originally announced. For example, 2 years after Trudeau pledged to plant 2 billion trees, only 8.5 million have been planted.
The government needs to do better with this.
Canada is committed to protecting 25% of its land and 25% of its oceans by 2025, using nature-based solutions to fight climate change, and reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
$9.2 billion for bilateral agreements with provinces and territories for projects, including those that include adaptation and climate resilience.
$2 billion for a Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund for built and natural, large-scale infrastructure projects. These projects help build the resilience of our infrastructure to natural disasters, extreme weather events and climate change.
investing $40 million in the development of climate-resilient building and infrastructure codes.
Working with the private sector
The government has to work with the private sector to mitigate climate change and they do so through restrictions, deals, and contracts.
An example of how the private and public sector are connected to mitigate climate change is the federal carbon tax. The carbon tax is set a minimum price of 20 dollars per tonne of CO2 in 2019, rising by 10 dollars every year to 50 dollars in 2022, where it will increase by 15 dollars every year until it reaches 170 dollars in 2030. As of April 2021, the carbon tax per tonne of CO2 is 40 dollars. This is an example of the connection through government restrictions on the private sector to mitigate climate change.
Another example of this connection is The IFC-Canada Climate Change Program. The IFC-Canada Climate Change Program, established in March 2011, is a partnership between the Government of Canada and the IFC to promote private sector financing for clean energy and climate adaptation projects to accelerate investments in low-carbon technologies.
DIET
What you eat heavily impacts your impact on climate change. An action you can take to mitigate climate change is to change your diet. For example, eating locally produced foods lowers the distance that the food needs to travel which will add to greenhouse gas emissions. Beef has a very large negative impact on climate change as cattle produce methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. The land conversion process needed to raise cattle as well as their feed is also very carbon-intensive.
Brand Choice
If you do your research on what brands of common items have a more negative impact on climate change than others, and opt to use ones that are better for the environment, it can help to mitigate climate change.
Private sector and Personal choices
Private sector and Government
Government and Personal choices
The Government has the power to influence your personal choices by properly educating people on climate change and its causes. It can also restrict the options available for your personal choices, in order to mitigate climate change.
The private sector is responsible for producing good options of product to use that can help mitigate climate change. When we talk about personal choices to mitigate climate change, we are talking about the choices of what private sector products to use. for example, eating a beef burger or a Beyond Meat burger.
This connection is also talked about on the opposite side of the mind map. The government has to work with the private sector to mitigate climate change and they do so through restrictions, deals, and contracts. (see other side where it says "Working with the private sector) under the Government projects and choices section.