Philanthropy Beyond Carbon Neutrality

The Paris Agreement on climate change has united the world in the pursuit of an ambitious climate goal. However, goals alone will not avert catastrophic climate change. Credible commitments to aggressive action are also needed. And on this front, the world leaves much to be desired: the collective national mitigation pledges submitted in advance of COP21 fall far short of what is needed to achieve the goals agreed upon in Paris. In order to curtail climate change, we must dramatically pick up the pace on climate mitigation action. Rapid mitigation will require that we deploy all the solutions we can to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions. But we cannot stop there. It will also be important to develop solutions to remove excess CO2 that has accumulated in the atmosphere over the past century of industrial activity.