Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.

• Author: Nummedal, Dag

Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken (Penguin Random House, 2017), 256 pages, ISBN 9780143130444 (paperback).

DRAWDOWN is not "just" a new book on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reverse warming; yet that is its printed title. It is actually a portal into a very active community of world-class scientists, engineers, economists and policy makers who are continuously developing a very comprehensive database, subject to continuous development and revision, of the most impactful potential solutions to global warming. I recommend buying the book, which is inexpensive, and also to engage in the continuous updates, revisions and on-line communications related to it at https://www.amazon.com/Drawdown-Comprehensive-Proposed-Reverse-warming/dp/0143130447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542660750&sr=8-1&keywords=project+drawdown.

The book is very thought provoking and offers several surprises. For example, who would have thought that educating girls and family planning would rank as the 6th and 7th most effective means of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions? According to the team's calculation they do! Less surprising, yet equally impactful knowledge comes in the quantitative assessment of 80 different solutions. These range from the expected ones, such as improved technologies in refrigeration to avoid releases of greenhouse gases, as well as ozone depleting ones, through the many useful and accelerating new technologies in wind turbines, solar PV, electric vehicles, building automation and many other technologies. Again, the real breakthrough value of the book lies in not only explaining why these are technology developments that need to be accelerated, but the quantitative assessment of their potential relative impact on global warming.

The context in which this book has emerged makes it even more relevant and impactful than the explanation of the relative impacts that all these different technology solutions by themselves might have; although that is of course very valuable knowledge as well. The context I refer to is that of current political and policy debates about cost-effective pathways to emissions reductions. One very visible expression of that is the International Energy Agency's (IEA) 2018 report, which states that "energy destiny lies with government" (see Oil and Gas Journal, Nov. 13, 2018). Progressive fossil energy companies, globally, are charting their own...