The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Accelerator has initiated a bold new plan aimed at mitigating the worst effects of climate change. A total of 16 groundbreaking projects are currently being supported, marking the first distribution of funds as part of the pioneering Greenhouse Gas Removal Flagship Destination.
The aim for the flagship is an ambitious one. Through this funding, they hope to achieve atmospheric greenhouse gas removal at gigaton levels by 2050.
This is not a single effort, but the first in a series of planned Flagship Destinations that the Accelerator will pursue in the years to come.
The provided funding is referred to as "scoping" grants. Their purpose is to test emerging research to overcome critical obstacles or confirm mechanisms that could pave the way for a viable greenhouse gas remedy.
The research spans across four pivotal sub-categories:
Awareness of all components to GHG emissions is also an important component to the flagship. Carbon dioxide, while the most abundant and notorious of the greenhouse gases, is not the only offender. Methane, nitrous oxide, and others also play a role in trapping heat in the atmosphere.
The critical factors in the Flagship Destination strategy have potential for significant impact and scalability. No current carbon or GHG removal has even come close to the gigaton levels of gas removal necessary for noticeable climate change mitigation. Through this research, Stanford’s Sustainability Accelerator aims to make much-needed progress toward this ambitious number.
The focus of these grants is on approaches that carry a high-risk/high-reward potential. A few innovative examples supported by the funding include the following:
No matter the specifics, each of the 16 selected Flagship Destinations connects with the Sustainability Accelerator’s comprehensive vision. This includes multiple factors:
Future projects supported by the Greenhouse Gas Removal Flagship Destination will occur alongside each other. Their structure and ongoing parameters will be supported by input from multiple sources. This includes broader university-level support as well as stakeholder feedback and collaboration with other projects.
Stanford’s Greenhouse Gas Removal Flagship Destination brings a university community together in service to an important goal: mitigating the effects of climate change. This initiative highlights the creative ingenuity needed to meet the lofty goals for GHG reduction.
The key takeaway here is collaboration. These projects are all collaborative efforts aimed at the above-mentioned goal. Each project group works with multiple agents to develop the most robust research outcomes. Through this collaboration, meeting such immense GHG targets becomes an attainable finish line we can all rally behind.
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