🔥🌏 Code against Climate Change is a curated list of tech projects against climate change - hoping to inspire disruptive technological climate action!
Climate change is the biggest threat of our generation. Emissions are rising and according to the newest IPCC report, we are heading towards an unprecedented disaster. Political outrage is slowly forming but we also need technological disruptions! This living list aims to educate hackers and developers on promising tech projects against climate change, hoping to inspire immediate and disruptive technological climate action!
- Project Drawdown maps out causes and 100 solutions to global warming. The structure of this list is inspired by Project Drawdown. [TED Talk]
- Global Carbon Atlas is a platform to explore and visualize the most up-to-date data on carbon fluxes resulting from human activities and natural processes.
- Climate Impact Lab is a collaboration of 30 climate scientists, economists, computational experts, researchers, analysts, and students from the US providing insights into climate change.
- The Gold Standard manages best practice standards for climate and sustainable development interventions to maximise impact.
- Electricity Generation accounts for around 40 percent of all emissions to the atmosphere, making it the highest-emitting sector in the world.
- Fossil fuels represent 67 percent, nuclear 11 percent, and renewable energy sources just over 24 percent (and growing) of total worldwide electricity generation.
Solutions: In the last few years, the competitiveness of renewable sources for electricity generation has continued to increase due to the price evolution and the efficiency improvements of these technologies.
- Azuri provides a pay-as-you-go solar home system in Africa with eight hours of emission-free lighting each day and enough power to charge mobile phones.
- Stanford's solar-powered pumps are helping farmers in rural Benin irrigate dry land.
- Sol Share provides a peer-to-peer electricity trading network for rural households with and without solar home systems in Shariatpur, Bangladesh. People in rural Bangladesh are now earning additional income by selling their surplus electricity while new users have gained access to electricity without a centralized grid. [UNFCCC summary]
- Google's Project Sunroof leverages high-resolution aerial imagery from Google Earth to help calculate a roof’s solar energy potential. It enables tens of millions of potential solar customers from across the U.S. to evaluate if their home is suitable for solar and how much they could save on electricity. [UNFCCC summary]
- Crop and livestock production is the source of about 12 percent all emissions.
- Land clearing (which is mostly for agriculture) is the source of another 12 percent of all emissions (IPCC, 2014).
Solutions: Supply-side agricultural solutions (e.g. precision agriculture) reduce emissions from farming. Demand-side solutions (e.g plant-based diet and reduced food waste) reduce the need for land clearing.
- Microsoft's FarmBeats enables data-driven farming by leveraging local sensors, drones and satellite images and AI to create heatmaps for farmers to optimize their crop production.
- Foodsharing.de is a free foodsharing web platform, allowing participants to share food and reduce food waste.
- FHI360 collects, analyzes and sends out agricultural advisories, crop and livestock market information and weather data to Ugandan farmers, who are among the most affected by the impacts of climate change. As a result, farmers are able to minimize crop loss and damage, making them more resilient to global warming.
- ICTs For Small-Scale Farmers in Colombia and Honduras leverages sensors and tools that collects, collates, and analyzes weather data to inform farmers in advance on how to adjust their agricultural practices to ensure maximum crop-yield and thus food security.
- Deforestation and degradation of forest ecosystems are responsible for about 10-15 percent of all emissions today.
Solutions: Land use solutions reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation of ecosystems.
- GainForest provides AI-powered conservation tools for deforestation analysis and forecasting.
- Rainforest Connection creates acoustic monitoring systems to detect and end illegal deforestation in real-time.
- Ekofolio is a platform powered by blockchain technology, allowing anyone to invest in timberland.
- Planet Inc leverages its satellite system and landcover classification algorithms to detect deforestation.
- Afforest4Future uses machine learning to monitor the progress in new green areas.
- Ericson's Connected Mangrove combines cloud, machine-to-machine and mobile broadband to help the local community in Selangor, Malaysia, to better manage the growth of new mangrove saplings.
- Dense urban human settlement account for a significant percentage of human energy use, mostly for heating and cooling, responsible for 6 percent of all emissions
Solutions: Addressing the operating inefficiencies of dwelling in and using buildings, and of living in cities.
- Self-Sufficient House is a concept house in Switzerland that is off-grid and produces its own energy
- ETH's Future Cities Lab investigates sustainable solutions for city planning
- Transport produces 14 percent of all emissions.
Solutions: Some modes of transport can only currently be made more efficient at using existing fossil fuels, others have alternative fuels and/or can be avoided completely using information and communication technologies.
- Tesla is one of the world's most valuable car producers. It pioneered consumer-friendly electric cars, disrupting the diesel-powered traditional car industry.
- ChargePoint is the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) charging network. Its smart-energy management solutions help people and businesses shift from fueling with gasoline to fueling with electricity. [UNFCCC Summary]
- There is significant greenhouse gas emissions throughout the life cycle of the products that meet our daily needs.
- Linear life cycle where material is extracted, processed, transported, manufactured, utilized, and discarded leaves a terrific atmospheric and financial footprint from the energy wasted.
Solutions: Redesigning and reimagining the materials used in products and structures, as well as the means by which they can be reduced, reused, and recycled.
- FairPhone in Netherlands is making “fair” phones, opening up the supply chain and seeking to make a positive impact in the industries involved like mining, design, and manufacturing.
- Green Credit Cards from the Korean Ministry of Environment encourages users to make low-carbon lifestyle choices. More than 15 million cards have been issued in South Korea.
Solutions: Technologies and solutions that do not yet have enough scientific and financial information to model, but that could emerge within the next several years as game-changers in the effort to reverse global warming.
- Global warming already has societal impacts such as climate migrations and travel risks
- Due to existing inequalities, women and girls are disproportionately vulnerable to its impacts, from disease to natural disaster.
Solutions: Analyze its societal impact to understand policy changes
- Global Policy Lab uses 1.6 million historical aerial photographs to discern the effect of major droughts and climate change on human migration in Africa.
- SmartICE is a climate change adaptation tool that integrates traditional knowledge of sea ice with advanced data acquisition and remote monitoring technology, aiding Inuits in the planning of safe routes on the ice, thus reducing travel risks. [Guardian]
- CREA Mont-Blanc leverages webcams, citizen science and automated the monitoring of temperatures, snow patterns, and behaviors of the fauna and flora in the Mont-Blanc area to inform on land-use strategies in the mountains. [UNFCCC summary]
Innovative projects need funding, this is a list of resources where hackers and devs can seek for it.
- Microsoft AI for Earth is an innovation program from Microsoft that supports sustainable projects with an grants, PR and networking opportunities.
- Climate KIC is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and identifies and supports innovation that helps society mitigate and adapt to climate change.
- Climate-KIC Accelerator supports startups that aspire to create a positive effect on climate issues.
- Y Combinator requests and funds startups that concentrate on frontier technologies such as carbon removal.
- Hack4Climate is an innovation program, supported by the UNFCCC, designed to accelerate disruptive and tangible climate solutions at scale.
License
To the extent possible under law, David Dao has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.
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