Climate mitigation
Climate mitigation is human action that reduces greenhouse gas emissions or enhances the removal of greenhouse gases by sinks. It addresses the causes of climate change through changes in energy, transport, buildings, industry, land use, agriculture, forestry, waste, and other systems.
In simple terms
Mitigation can avoid emissions, lower the amount released per activity, replace high-emitting processes, or increase durable removals. Examples include Energy efficiency, Renewable energy, methane controls, forest protection, and Carbon sequestration. Credible choices consider total system effects, feasibility, permanence, and potential impacts on people and ecosystems. Climate mitigation limits the magnitude of future climate change; Climate adaptation reduces vulnerability and exposure to impacts that occur or are expected.
Why it matters
Cumulative greenhouse gas emissions determine much of long-term warming, so near-term mitigation influences both future hazards and the scale of adaptation required. Evaluating measures across sectors helps prevent isolated gains from being offset elsewhere. It also makes trade-offs visible, including land demand, affordability, energy access, Biodiversity, and the durability of stored carbon.
Example
A city electrifies buses, improves building insulation, purchases Renewable energy, captures landfill methane, and measures resulting emissions against a defined baseline. Those actions form a mitigation portfolio. Separately, it redesigns drainage for heavier rainfall; that drainage work is Climate adaptation rather than Climate mitigation.