The short list really is that. It’s broad, covering energy, transportation, agriculture, and industry. But it doesn’t try to be deeply nuanced. In fact, a few bullet points are enough to get the idea across.
- Electrify everything
- Overbuild renewable generation
- Build continent-scale electrical grids and markets
- Build pumped hydro and other storage
- Plant a lot of trees
- Change agricultural practices
- Fix concrete, steel, and industrial processes
- Price carbon aggressively
- Shut down coal and gas generation aggressively
- Stop financing and subsidies for fossil fuel
- Eliminate HFCs in refrigeration
- Ignore distractions
- Pay attention to motivations
None of this is particularly surprising to anyone who has been paying attention and isn’t stuck deep into one of the swirling maelstroms of misinformation or motivated thinking. Regardless, committed climate action analysts, leaders, and researchers often find things to get deeply annoyed about with it.