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Tradewater
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Tradewater at Stockholm Climate Week: “Our solution is already proven — and we have a way of having an immediate impact”
To date, Tradewater has collected, controlled, and destroyed halocarbons and methane equivalent to more than 6 million metric tons of CO2.
However, it doesn’t stop there. Tradewater is dedicated to increasing its impact by preventing at least 22 million tons of CO2 equivalent from being released into the atmosphere through 2027.
At Stockholm Climate Week, Tradewater joined We Don’t Have Time to discuss its ongoing mission to permanently prevent non-CO2 gases from entering the atmosphere, and why its scalable solution needs the support of organizations and individuals to make an even more significant impact.
Representing Tradewater at Stockholm Climate Week were Maria José Gutiérrez, Senior Director of International Programs, and Kirsten Love, Director of Market Development.
Maria José Gutiérrez and Kirsten Love discussed the importance of removing non-CO2 gases with We Don’t Have Time’s program host, Catarina Rolfsdotter-Jansson.
Why should people be concerned about non-CO2 gases?
Despite carbon dioxide representing the lion’s share of climate solutions, solutions that target the prevention of emissions from non-CO2 gases such as refrigerants, halons, and methane should not be overlooked or left behind, as they often are today. In fact, these non-CO2 gases can cause even more damage than CO2, and need all the support they can get.
As Maria José Gutiérrez explained, “Non-CO2 gases are greenhouse gases that are not receiving enough attention around the world. These non-CO2 gases can be as much as 23,500 times more potent than carbon dioxide. CFCs, for example, that we are working to find, collect, control, and destroy around the world, are as much as 11,400 times more potent than carbon dioxide.”
Once non-CO2 gases are released into the atmosphere, their damage is felt immediately and cannot be removed through nature-based solutions or other technologies, which underscores just why it's so important to collect, control, and destroy these gases before they enter the atmosphere.
To better illustrate the challenge of tracking down and removing non-CO2 gases, a recent report from MIT highlighted the significant impact of CFC refrigerant gases, many of which are stored in ozone-depleting substance banks. In order to grasp the magnitude of the worldwide risk associated with non-CO2 gases, it is estimated that there is the equivalent of around 9 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions still in existence that have yet to be collected, controlled and destroyed—and that’s just counting CFCs.
Maria José Gutiérrez spoke on why there isn’t so much focus on these non-CO2 gases and why we should all be concerned about their impact on the climate.
Efforts to remove and prevent non-CO2 gases from entering the atmosphere are not globally coordinated, and there isn’t a framework that is designed to facilitate the eradication of these “forgotten gases” at their end-of-life.
“Forgotten” or not, these non-CO2 gases still represent a sizable obstacle to reaching our planet’s climate goals. Tradewater’s mission to collect, control and destroy these harmful gases is important and is scalable today, but its positive impacts can be broadened even further if it receives more support from people and organizations.
The Need for Diversifying Investments in Climate Solutions
There is no silver bullet to solve the climate crisis, and by extension, the funding that goes toward scaling climate solutions shouldn’t all be geared toward a singular climate solution either.
When it comes to climate solutions, supporting all of them is important, but it is also critical to provide immediate support for solutions that can be implemented in the near term so they can make an impact today.
“All climate solutions are necessary, and just like you would maximize your investment elsewhere through diversification, we need to do the same thing when it comes to climate impact. We need to make sure that we’re supporting nature-based solutions, tech force solutions, such as direct air capture, and also solutions like ours, that are proven,” said Kirsten Love.
“Carbon markets allow us to create, measure and value the climate benefit we’re creating and then enable others to join us in a very easy way,” said Kirsten Love.
When regarding our mission to collect, collect, and destroy these non-CO2 gases, we’ve been successful in preventing the release of more than 6 million metric tons of CO2 to date. But imagine what we could do if we had your support.
The time is now to support the solutions that can be scaled in the short term, like Tradewater’s, to make an impact today.
As Kirsten illustrated, “The level of focus is not where it should be, and therefore the level of funding is not where it should be. There are so many climate solutions out there that are all needed at the same time, but some of these solutions will take time to scale. Our solution is already proven—and we have a way of having an immediate impact.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncCM8xYUCEs
To learn more about Tradewater’s mission, click here. Stay up to date in our climate journey by following us on We Don’t Have Time, Twitter, LinkedIn, and subscribing to our newsletter.
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What you do is great! And this was a very insightful session!
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I have to say that metallic grey outfit is to die for. loool.
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It's good to support and emphasize more about climate
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It was very impactful and full of insights !
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Really enjoyed watching this session!
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So true about funding climate solutions! All climate solutions should be supported, but there should be an emphasis on what can be scaled today.
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@ford_brodeur_ investing in projects that can have an impact TODAY buys us time to implement longer-term, critical CO2-based reduction strategies. This work matters now!