About the Initiative
International efforts to curb the worst impacts of climate change are increasingly focused on negative emissions strategies. These are deliberate activities designed to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, providing a critical stopgap while we decarbonize our energy, transportation, and industrial sectors, and modify our land use practices. But there is much we do not yet understand about the economic, biophysical, and governance dimensions of these approaches and given the growing urgency of the climate crisis, there is a pressing need to fill these knowledge gaps. Developing negative emissions strategies as part of the broader mitigation portfolio increases resilience and helps manage climate risk.
The University of Virginia Environmental Resilience Institute launched a coordinated research initiative in 2020 focused on negative emissions to provide global thought leadership in this important area. The Climate Restoration Initiative is bringing together faculty and students from across ground to collaborate on targeted projects with leaders from other academic, government, and NGO institutions. The goal of the Climate Restoration Initiative is to build strong interdisciplinary teams that leverage the university’s research excellence and provide actionable knowledge for climate change mitigation.
