Welcome

Photo from NASA Visible Earth

The Global Network for Climate Solutions (GNCS), with generous support from the Planet Heritage Foundation and the Skoll Global Threats Fund, seeks to inform future international climate negotiations by grounding them in shared research focused on concrete solutions and actions. 

The GNCS brings together international mitigation and adaptation experts and facilitates the design of country-based climate change action strategies.

The network is hosted at the Earth Institute of Columbia University, coordinated by the Columbia Climate Center, and overseen by two global project Boards, one for adaptation and one for mitigation. Scott Barrett chairs the Mitigation Board, and Shiv Someshwar chairs the Adaptation Board. Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, oversees the program.

Adaptation

The Adaptation Program interacts with a range of institutes in developing countries to inform adaptation efforts and plans for global adaptation financing. Adaptation solutions may focus on specific sectors or geographic regions within a country.

The goals of the Adaptation Program are to advance practical, science-based methods for adaptation solutions; identify and assess new technologies and needed policies and institutions; create a basis for comparing adaptation costs; and improve capacities of institutes and nongovernmental organizations in developing countries to contribute to adaptation planning and practice.

Mitigation

In the absence of a binding international agreement on climate change, new thinking and new kinds of information are necessary to address the risks of climate change. Therefore, the first step in the Mitigation Program is to develop a template for comparing the actions that individual countries can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with an emphasis on individual sectors, technologies, and gases. Simultaneously, a network of contributing organizations with in-country knowledge assists in providing data for the template. 

This information will then be used to make proposals for coordinated mitigation plans and policies, and to inform future rounds of international climate negotiations.