Roadmap to 2030

Thirty years ago, it might have been possible to tackle our climate change challenge by focusing exclusively on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But while such strategies are essential to achieve long-term stability, they are now no longer enough.

That’s why, in addition to GHG reduction projects, the Registry considers projects that address the full set of factors identified by the IPCC as contributing to climate change, and also focuses on significant changes in this decade – before 2030 – as well as over longer time frames.

In addition to GHG emissions, short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) such as black carbon and tropospheric ozone, aerosol pollutants, and non-emissions factors, such as landscape level alterations leading to changes in surface reflectivity (“albedo”), are contributing to the disruption of our climate, along with changes in cloud cover and water vapor. All of these climate variables can be compared in terms of their relative “radiative forcing” – that is the degree to which they can affect the Earth Energy Balance by adding or reducing heat, measured in watts per square meter (W/m2).