urban Drawdown Resources

urban drawdown resource database

This growing resource database was launched in fall 2019 to aggregate tools and data that would support rapid adoption and scaling of drawdown actions by city-based actors. Below you will find groups of resources associated with each of the five pathways that make up our Urban Drawdown Framework, as well as resources for integrating drawdown into existing climate action accounting and planning.

1. Drawdown Actions (both technological and natural climate solutions, or NSC)

2. Drawdown Materials (organic waste and biomass)

3. Drawdown Economics

4. Drawdown Policy

5. Drawdown Education and Communications

Please check back frequently as we add new resources. All copyrights are held by the original authors. Use this search field or scroll down to peruse resources organized via Drawdown Action Pathway.

resources related to drawdown actions pathway

This pathway describes specific actions cities can implement that result in direct carbon drawdown. There are two broad areas of drawdown actions: natural climate solutions (NCS) and technology-based carbon drawdown.

Natural Climate Solutions 

NCS includes actions that utilize natural biological processes and systems to drawdown carbon into living systems.  Within NCS, there are two ecological settings within which action can be taken:

• Land-based drawdown. Actions of this type include land management treatments such as compost, biochar or other soil enhancement techniques.  

• Ocean/aquatic drawdown. This action area includes ocean farming, wetland management, and other systems that use the unique characteristics of water dominated ecosystems to accelerate carbon capture and sequestration.

The current primary focus of the Urban Drawdown Initiative are actions utilizing these NCS strategies implemented on ecosystems within or in close proximity to urban centers.  

Technology-based carbon drawdown

These approaches can range from geoengineering strategies such as atmospheric manipulation to technologies that can extract carbon from the atmosphere.  A few cities have begun to explore these technology-based solutions. This site shares links to some of these solutions and initial explorations taking place among UDI participating cities.

resources related to drawdown techniques that utilize organic materials

Cities are a concentration point for material resources. Huge volumes of organic materials flow into and throw cities, most leaving as waste.  Several of these organic resource streams can be captured and utilized as resources for land-based sequestration activities.

Organic waste

The organic “green” waste portion of city waste streams represent both a significant volume of overall waste and a substantial source of greenhouse destabilizing air pollutants such as CO2 and methane released during the waste decomposition process.  Much of this material results from food systems—both food waste (byproducts of food production) and wasted food (the uneaten/processed leftovers from eating. Through capture and processing of these organic waste, typically through composting systems, these organic “wastes” can be converted into a resource with demonstrated abilities to enhance the carbon drawdown capabilities of soil and agricultural systems. 

Biomass

Urban forests and other landscape management also generate significant volumes of organic material. Most of this material is directed into waste systems. It could instead be processed into uses and products that sequester a significant portion of its constituent carbon. Some of these byproducts, such as biochar, can also be utilized to stimulate additional carbon sequestration in soil and other biological systems.

resources related to drawdown economics

Cities concentrate financial resources. Many opportunities exist to capture and direct some of these financial resources to drawdown actions, including:

Equity-based Economic Development

Achieving the scale of carbon drawdown necessary to stabilize climate will require creating an economic sector larger than any existing industry including fossil fuels.  Cities must help shape this new economic sector development to insure it integrates equity and just transition principles. In natural ecosystem solutions, this means distributed, community-based enterprise development to implement the wide range of actions that will be needed—from organic materials collection, to composting, soil and regenerative agriculture development, urban forest management, and associated product and service development.  CDI is part of a bottom up green new deal strategy development.

Procurement

Public institutions, businesses and individuals all make purchasing decisions that could be used to support actions with drawdown benefits.  Examples include:

• Food purchased from agricultural or ocean farming systems utilizing regenerative practices that sequester carbon as part of their management practices.

• Products purchased from companies that have committed to incorporate support for drawdown action as part of their supply chains or product design.

• Embodied carbon consideration in the types of building materials or other carbon/energy intensive materials.  Shifting from concrete to wood in construction projects is one such example.

Offsets

The range of actions taking place in cities that result in GHG emissions can also be “offset” by enabling investments in actions that actively drawdown carbon.  Examples include creating offset pathways to satisfy “last-ton” compliance with net-zero building code requirements. Offsetting may also create options for municipalities facing the arrival of new types of energy intensive industries that have limited pathways to achieve net zero operations.  Examples include data centers and marijuana grow facilities.

Incentives or Investments

Cities also have the capability of providing direct investments intended to stimulate the further development of actions.  This could include providing drawdown grants to enterprises or initiatives developing new drawdown approaches. It could also include cities participating in joint ventures with technology or natural system initiatives that need initial capitalization to fully scale ventures with carbon drawdown benefits.

Resources related to drawdown policy

Sustainable drawdown economic development will require policy support at local, regional/state, and national levels. At regional/state and national levels, this may compel cities to engage new areas of policy advocacy such as soil management that were previously not considered relevant to municipal concerns.  This may create new areas of shared interest between cities and rural communities that open new social and political relationships that can counter the otherwise polarized divide frequently found between urban and rural constituencies.

Local Policy

Implementation of drawdown actions—either natural climate solutions or technology-based solutions—may require changes to municipal ordinances, codes or policies to support new types of technologies, practices, or land/resource uses.  The Carbon Drawdown Initiative will serve as a clearinghouse for policy innovations taking place across diverse geographic and urban settings.

Regional/State 

Depending on the level of local authority and control, regional and state policy may become a growing focus for cities interested in developing drawdown actions that optimize other local benefits including water utilization, soil management, carbon markets, or land use policies.  CDI will help to support and document innovation in regional/state policy action that expands the options for city-based drawdown action.

National

In addition to important federal policies such as the Farm Bill that have significant financial implications for natural climate solutions, the discussions of federal support for research and development, carbon market development, and a national jobs initiative like the Green New Deal could all have significant impact on the options for drawdown action development.  CDI will help to monitor and coordinate city-based actions to influence leverage these national level policy action.

Resources for drawdown education & communication

As we launch this initiative in 2019, there is still very limited public awareness of the importance of carbon drawdown, as opposed to the need for GHG emissions reduction. This lack of awareness in turn limits understanding and support for the civic and political actions that must be taken to rapidly expand drawdown’s vital climate stabilization potential. UDI is working with leading educators and communicators to develop resources that can be used by cities, schools, civic organizations, and other policy makers to increase public knowledge and support for carbon drawdown action. This includes both classroom based educational materials and information resources and for public agencies. UDI is also working with researchers to coordinate research on emerging drawdown strategies with substantial potential for rapidly expanding drawdown impact. Here we will share as many resources as possible to advance understanding and awareness of drawdown.

resources for integrating drawdown with existing emissions reduction efforts

Integrating carbon drawdown actions into municipal operations and existing climate action strategies will require a number of tools and resources. UDI aims to provide a clearinghouse for information on a number of these key tools and resources as well as support the development of additional tools and resources as critical needs are identified.  Current integration support areas include:

Drawdown integration into existing GHG inventories

Substantial actions are taking place within the leading emissions protocols such as ICLEI’s US and Global Community Protocols for Accounting and Reporting of GHGs.  UDI will develop evolving guides for cities to understand and integrate carbon drawdown into their inventories based on these emerging standards.

Drawdown systems overview

The field of carbon drawdown is evolving rapidly—in both the technology and natural climate solutions areas. UDI will create periodic updates on the leading strategies and techniques for carbon drawdown that are relevant to city-scale action.  

Drawdown potential assessment tools

Cities need tools and methods for rapidly assessing the best opportunities for developing carbon drawdown actions. UDI is working with resource specialists to develop a set of tools that can optimize drawdown strategies that simultaneously support other community priorities such as urban heat island management, urban food security, water and stormwater management, and ecosystems regeneration.