Project Drawdown

[rufuspollock]

Project Drawdown is a project to identifying solutions to get to "drawdown" (i.e. net zero or negative carbon emissions). Started in 2014 (by Paul Hawken and Amanda Ravenhill) they released a book in 2017 with their first summary of options and followed up with a major update in 2020.

The main output is set of potential "solutions" with detailed estimates of the impact - which allows for ranking solutions by their impact.

From the About page https://drawdown.org/about:

Founded in 2014, Project Drawdown® is a nonprofit organization that seeks to help the world reach “Drawdown”— the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline.

Since the 2017 publication of the New York Times bestseller, Drawdown, the organization has emerged as a leading resource for information and insight about climate solutions. We continue to develop that resource by conducting rigorous review and assessment of climate solutions, creating compelling and human communication across mediums, and partnering with efforts to accelerate climate solutions globally.

Data

Table of solutions: https://drawdown.org/solutions/table-of-solutions. HTML table with links to more detail though mainly text - no detailed modelling (though i think they are now releasing their platform - see code section below)

Inlining main table here:

SOLUTION	SECTOR(S)	SCENARIO 1 *	SCENARIO 2 *
Reduced Food Waste	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	87.45	94.56
Health and Education	Health and Education	85.42	85.42
Plant-Rich Diets	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	65.01	91.72
Refrigerant Management	Industry / Buildings	57.75	57.75
Tropical Forest Restoration	Land Sinks	54.45	85.14
Onshore Wind Turbines	Electricity	47.21	147.72
Alternative Refrigerants	Industry / Buildings	43.53	50.53
Utility-Scale Solar Photovoltaics	Electricity	42.32	119.13
Improved Clean Cookstoves	Buildings	31.34	72.65
Distributed Solar Photovoltaics	Electricity	27.98	68.64
Silvopasture	Land Sinks	26.58	42.31
Peatland Protection and Rewetting	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	26.03	41.93
Tree Plantations (on Degraded Land)	Land Sinks	22.24	35.94
Temperate Forest Restoration	Land Sinks	19.42	27.85
Concentrated Solar Power	Electricity	18.60	23.96
Insulation	Electricity / Buildings	16.97	19.01
Managed Grazing	Land Sinks	16.42	26.01
LED Lighting	Electricity	16.07	17.53
Perennial Staple Crops	Land Sinks	15.45	31.26
Tree Intercropping	Land Sinks	15.03	24.40
Regenerative Annual Cropping	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	14.52	22.27
Conservation Agriculture	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	13.40	9.43
Abandoned Farmland Restoration	Land Sinks	12.48	20.32
Electric Cars	Transportation	11.87	15.68
Multistrata Agroforestry	Land Sinks	11.30	20.40
Offshore Wind Turbines	Electricity	10.44	11.42
High-Performance Glass	Electricity / Buildings	10.04	12.63
Methane Digesters	Electricity / Industry	9.83	6.18
Improved Rice Production	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	9.44	13.82
Indigenous Peoples’ Forest Tenure	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	8.69	12.93
Bamboo Production	Land Sinks	8.27	21.31
Alternative Cement	Industry	7.98	16.10
Hybrid Cars	Transportation	7.89	4.63
Carpooling	Transportation	7.70	4.17
Public Transit	Transportation	7.51	23.36
Smart Thermostats	Electricity / Buildings	6.99	7.40
Building Automation Systems	Electricity / Buildings	6.47	10.48
District Heating	Electricity / Buildings	6.28	9.85
Efficient Aviation	Transportation	6.27	9.18
Geothermal Power	Electricity	6.19	9.85
Forest Protection	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	5.52	8.75
Recycling	Industry	5.50	6.02
Biogas for Cooking	Buildings	4.65	9.70
Efficient Trucks	Transportation	4.61	9.71
Efficient Ocean Shipping	Transportation	4.40	6.30
High-Efficiency Heat Pumps	Electricity / Buildings	4.16	9.29
Perennial Biomass Production	Land Sinks	4.00	7.04
Solar Hot Water	Electricity / Buildings	3.59	14.29
Grassland Protection	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	3.35	4.25
System of Rice Intensification	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	2.78	4.26
Nuclear Power	Electricity	2.65	3.23
Bicycle Infrastructure	Transportation	2.56	6.65
Biomass Power	Electricity	2.52	3.57
Nutrient Management	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use	2.34	12.06
Biochar Production	Engineered Sinks	2.22	4.39
Landfill Methane Capture	Electricity / Industry	2.18	-1.60
Composting	Industry	2.14	3.13
Waste-to-Energy	Electricity / Industry	2.04	3.00
Small Hydropower	Electricity	1.69	3.28
Walkable Cities	Transportation	1.44	5.45
Ocean Power	Electricity	1.38	1.38
Sustainable Intensification for Smallholders	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Land Sinks	1.36	0.68
Electric Bicycles	Transportation	1.31	4.07
High-Speed Rail	Transportation	1.30	3.77
Farm Irrigation Efficiency	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use	1.13	2.07
Recycled Paper	Industry	1.10	1.95
Telepresence	Transportation	1.05	3.80
Coastal Wetland Protection	Food, Agriculture, and Land Use / Coastal and Ocean Sinks	0.99	1.45
Bioplastics	Industry	0.96	3.80
Low-Flow Fixtures	Electricity / Buildings	0.91	1.56
Coastal Wetland Restoration	Coastal and Ocean Sinks	0.77	1.01
Water Distribution Efficiency	Electricity	0.66	0.94
Green and Cool Roofs	Electricity / Buildings	0.60	1.10
Dynamic Glass	Electricity / Buildings	0.29	0.47
Electric Trains	Transportation	0.10	0.65
Micro Wind Turbines	Electricity	0.09	0.13
Building Retrofitting	Electricity / Buildings
Net-Zero Buildings	Electricity / Buildings
Grid Flexibility	Electricity
Microgrids	Electricity
Distributed Energy Storage	Electricity
Utility-Scale Energy Storage	Electricity

Framework

See https://drawdown.org/drawdown-framework. Key summary info (in graphics):

Code

• They have their modelling framework (ported from excel to python) here: https://github.com/ProjectDrawdown/solutions

TODO

• Scrape the key solution info and store in a little database.
• Identify where the background calculations are coming from

[twolfson]

If y'all need a headstart on this, I wrote up this scraper. Unsure what data you specifically were looking for (I wanted the stats buried in the detailed pages that I couldn't find elsewhere)

https://gist.github.com/twolfson/728ea57ea9aafcb731ab43fce52be711