The mitigation of climate change involves activities that seek to reduces the causes of man-made climate change. This can involve:

• a substitution of the activities causing the emission of greenhouse gases, such as burning fossil fuels for electricity generation, with a less carbon-intensive alternative, such as renewable electricity; or
• the enhancement of activities that result in greenhouse gas emissions through the application of technology, such as carbon capture and storage, to reduce the carbon emissions from those activities;

Unfortunately, in most cases these activities involve an addition upfront cost and ongoing cost, meaning low carbon development is more costly than traditional, carbon intensive development. Policies are therefore required to motivate people to incur this additional cost.

Mitigation of climate change involves actively reducing the drivers behind the underlying causes of man-made climate change, with the objective of minimising the future changes to the natural environment (and the linked impacts on how humans can interact with their environment) resulting from the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Mitigation is therefore focused on changing those key human activities that contribute to climate change.

Renewable Energy

Renewable forms of energy can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use of energy for electricity generation, heat and transport. Technologies such as wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and electric cars offset the demand for energy from traditional, greenhouse gas emitting technologies. This is explored more in this section

Sustainable Land Use

As discussed in this section, land use change is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Changes to the way in which we use land for agriculture, urban development and resource extraction can therefore mitigate these impacts. Click here for more details.

Geoengineering

Geoengineering is a controversial and relatively unproven concept, in which technology can be applied to apply forcing factors on the climate to reverse the effects of climate change. Click here for more details.

Carbon Capture and Storage

Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, involves applying technologies to greenhouse gas emitting processes, such as electricity generation, to collect, transport and store greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide) to ensure such greenhouse gas emissions are not released into the environment. This section provides more detail.

Energy Efficiency

The generation, transport and use of energy (across electricity, heating and transport) involves losses of energy - such that the energy input is not all used to produce the intended, useful output. Technologies, such as LED lighting, that increase the efficient use of energy act to reduce overall energy demand and therefore the greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy production. This is explained more here.