Next Steps
Climate change is one of the most urgent and extensive global threats confronting us today. Each year, greenhouse gas emissions continue to climb, warming the earth and exacting devastating consequences on both natural and built environments. Rising sea levels and extreme weather events are more frequently leading to crises in almost every domain, including food security, biodiversity, public health and national security. While the 2015 Paris Agreement resulted in a near universal commitment by countries to limit the increase in average global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius and to “pursue efforts” to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, neither goal is likely to be achieved based on current trends.
On September 17, 2019, CWP invited about 35 experts from inside and outside of Columbia University for a Forum – a meeting to better understand key aspects of this challenge and identify promising projects that CWP could implement to achieve potential solutions to challenges in decarbonization. Before the meeting, experts worked with CWP staff to develop more than 15 project proposals, which were discussed and evaluated at the Forum.
Read more about the project proposals and the working group discussions in our Forum report.