Working paper

Sponsors -The Republic of Korea, The European Union

Author – Canada
• Keep fossil fuels in the ground. Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and gas – and the more
that are extracted and burned, the worse climate change will get. All countries need to move
their economies away from fossil fuels as soon as possible.
• Invest in renewable energy. Changing our main energy sources to clean and
renewable energy is the best way to stop using fossil fuels. These include technologies like
solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal power.
• Switch to sustainable transport. Petrol and diesel vehicles, planes, and ships use fossil
fuels. Reducing car use, switching to electric vehicles, and minimizing plane travel will not
only help stop climate change but will also reduce air pollution too.
• Help us keep our homes cozy. Homes shouldn’t be draughty and cold – it’s a waste of
money, and miserable in the winter. The government can help households heat their homes in
a green way – such as by insulating walls and roofs and switching away from oil or gas
boilers to heat pumps.
• Improve farming and encourage vegan diets. One of the best ways for individuals to
help stop climate change is by reducing their meat and dairy consumption, or by going fully
vegan. Businesses and food retailers can improve farming practices and provide more plant-
based products to help people make the shift.
• Restore nature to absorb more carbon. The natural world is very good at cleaning up
our emissions, but we need to look after it. Planting trees in the right places or giving land
back to nature through ‘rewilding’ schemes is a good place to start. This is because
photosynthesizing plants draw down carbon dioxide as they grow, locking it away in soils.
• Protect forests like the Amazon. Forests are crucial in the fight against climate
change, and protecting them is an important climate solution. Cutting down forests on an
industrial scale destroys giant trees which could be sucking up huge amounts of carbon. Yet
companies destroy forests to make way for animal farming, soya, or palm oil plantations.
Governments can stop them by making better laws.
• protect the oceans. Oceans also absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere, which helps to keep our climate stable. But many are overfished, used for oil and
gas drilling, or threatened by deep-sea mining. Protecting oceans and the life in them is
ultimately a way to protect ourselves from climate change.
• Reduce how much people consume. Our transport, fashion, food, and other lifestyle
choices all have different impacts on the climate. This is often by design – fashion and
technology companies, for example, will release far more products than are realistically
needed. But while reducing consumption of these products might be hard, it’s most certainly
worth it. Reducing overall consumption in more wealthy countries can help put less strain on
the planet.
• Reduce plastic. Plastic is made from oil, and the process of extracting, refining, and
turning oil into plastic (or even polyester, for clothing) is surprisingly carbon-intense. It
doesn’t break down quickly in nature so a lot of plastic is burned, which contributes