The Gigatonne Lab

Reducing CO2 emissions by 1,000,000,000 tonnes in two years

If we have any hope of keeping climate change below two degrees celsius, the peak year of carbon emissions has to be 2016
Jim Yong Kim, President World Bank
Annual Global Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GtCO2e) 55
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The Gigatonne Lab is a major international collaboration to identify and launch a portfolio of initiatives to reduce global emissions by a gigatonne within a two year timeframe. The Gigatonne Lab will be comprised of a diverse group of institutions committed to take meaningful action on climate change. The coalition will include: leading multi-national corporations, financial institutions, regional governments and expert advisors in finance, policy, technology and climate science.

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We need to cut at least 1GT of emissions per year but instead emissions are still rising
The need for meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is becoming more and more urgent. Experts estimate that to achieve a 50% chance at global temperatures increasing by 2C this century, global emissions need to decline by at least 1GT CO2e per year until 2050. Instead of declining, global emissions are increasing. Numerous indicators are now showing that the planetary climate is destabilising faster than previous predictions. Even the predictions made just three years ago have now been exceeded. While there is no shortage of promising ideas and activity in all of these domains, the current pace of change remains far too slow. The inter-dependency of many of the potential solutions and the complexity of decarbonising our economy means that meaningful progress is extremely difficult.

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Peak before 2020 Rapid decline afterwards

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2C Range 1.5C Range 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100

40 2010 Time (years) 2020

The gap between a 2 climate scenario and the current international emissions reductions pledges (with four different cases) from The Emissions Gap Report 2012, UNEP

Effective solutions must be created and delivered through more systemic, collaborative approaches
To reverse the current emissions trend requires that political, economic, technical and behavioural measures be developed and implemented in tandem. Currently government, civil society, business and academia operate too much within their own silos. In order to move our institutions at the scale and pace that the situation demands, far greater effort and resources must be focused on approaches that are systemic, inter-disciplinary and strategically scoped to fill the aspiration gap.

Current aspirations for solving the problem fall short of what is needed
Analyses abound that tell the story of how much change is needed to achieve peaking. Meanwhile current strategies fail to be sufficiently ambitious and tend to: Set targets in terms of what is politically tenable (politicsbased target setting), or Set targets in terms of what is easily achievable given current technology and organisational structures (bottom-up target setting), or Fail to set or achieve any ambitious targets because they struggle to collaborate across disciplines, ideologies, and trust barriers. We call this the Aspiration Gap, which is amply illustrated by UNEPs graph comparing current international pledges to reduce emissions with the emissions reductions required to achieve a 2 climate scenario.

The Gigatonne Lab will bring a multi-disciplinary approach to design and implement the most effective strategies for rapid emissions reductions
The Gigatonne Lab brings a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to the design and implementation of emissions reductions strategies. During the initial phase of the project (August-November 2013) we will undertake scoping research, including a systems mapping exercise and a meta-analysis of existing research into opportunities for gigatonne-scale emissions reductions.

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Then in late November / early December the Gigatonne Summit will convene 40-60 senior leaders from across government, business, finance, academia and civil society to review the findings of the research and to explore how the Lab approach can address the problem. Following the Gigatonne Summit, we will launch a two year effort to identify the most promising strategies for reducing emissions at gigatonne scale, leading to the prototyping and roll out of a portfolio of initiatives. During the two year programme, diverse stakeholders will learn to work together through tried and tested methodologies that have been successfully applied to create movement in many tough challenges, including the peaceful transition to democracy in South Africa and the mainstreaming of sustainable food models. The objective is to identify a range of initiatives that together could reduce a gigatonne of emissions within a two year period. While this may seem ambitious, a 10X moonshot goal can sometimes be easier than a 10% incremental improvement because setting goals that others may think impossible can be the catalyst to real out of the box thinking. This is what the Gigatonne Lab is about. The Lab will build on other international climate change initiatives but look to take them to the next level by: Connecting different ideas, strategies, institutions and leaders from across government, business, finance, academia and civil society providing the right environment for successful collaboration between the different parties Identifying the most promising ideas and approaches, what blocks may currently exist and how they can be removed Providing access to key influencers, decision-makers and financiers so that the most promising strategies for emissions reductions can be scaled more successfully Taking an action-orientated approach

We are currently in discussions with a number of other potential founding partners and welcome interest from major businesses, NGOs, multi-lateral and public sector organisations with an interest in participating, including: Partner organisations to co-convene the Lab Funders to provide funding for first phase of the Lab, including the scoping research and the Gigatonne Summit Subject matter experts and research partners to provide input into (1) the meta-analysis of existing research into opportunities for gigatonne-scale emissions reductions and (2) mapping the climate change system: key players, policies, initiatives, technologies and their inter-dependencies Climate champions within key organisations and institutions with the power and ambition to mitigate climate change

Offering an opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking international project

The Gigatonne Lab represents an innovative, timely and at-scale attempt to demonstrate the viability of low-carbon development pathways. This calls for a group of individuals and institutions to go through an extremely steep learning curve that no one has travelled before. We anticipate breaking new ground at every step of the way. For large companies participation in the Lab represents a significant opportunity to take a leadership role in creating the low carbon economy, with the associated benefits for inspiring employees, enhancing organisational learning, developing new strategic partnerships, driving breakthrough innovation, identifying new market opportunities and increasing brand value. For financial partners the Lab will increase understanding of where the greatest opportunities exist for low carbon finance; will provide a forum for developing, testing and enhancing climate finance mechanisms; and is likely to present specific investment opportunities among the portfolio of initiatives that are created. For regional governments the Lab represents a significant opportunity to attract investment on major capital projects. In addition to investment benefits, the Lab will deliver an array of social and environmental returns. For academic partners the Gigatonne Lab will offer premier opportunities to bridge the gap between theory and practice by bringing forward policy ideas to decisionmakers, and to conduct research on the outcomes of policy implementation. For donors, the Lab represents a chance to support a systems-level intervention that has the potential to be a game changer in how climate change is addressed.

We will demonstrate a methodology that can be replicated and scaled for even greater impact
Abating 1 GT of CO2 is a fraction of what is needed to achieve peaking and avert disaster. However, given the failure of our existing economic and political systems to reduce emissions despite having been working on it since 1992, new approaches to this problem must be tried. Demonstrating an approach that can achieve gigatonnescale carbon reductions will pave the way for replicating and scaling the Gigatonne Lab to support even greater reductions in emissions in the years ahead.

Bringing together players with the right know-how, relationships and resources
We are convening a small group of founding partners for the Gigatonne Lab. Currently these include: Reos Partners: a social innovation consultancy that is one of the worlds leading practitioners in the facilitation of multistakeholder collaboration around complex, high stakes issues. Engineers Without Borders: an incubator of systemic innovations for social change and the acceleration of development.

Contact
For further information please contact: Zaid Hassan hassan@reospartners.com or Charles OMalley charles.omalley@reospartners.com

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