This guide compiles scientific research on effective climate action, led by a climate scientist (Dr. Kimberly (Kim) Nicholas) in collaboration with Project Drawdown, to make recommendations for specific actions you can take based on your answers to questions designed to identify your highest-impact actions.
In a 2017 study, Seth Wynes, Ph.D, Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo, and Kim defined high-impact actions as those with the potential to contribute to systemic change and substantially reduce annual personal emissions by at least 0.8 tCO₂e per year. (A quick note: tCO₂e stands for “tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent” — it’s a way to measure the total impact of various greenhouse gases on a common scale by converting them to equivalent amounts of the most common climate pollutant, CO₂.)
So it’s not about doing a million small things, hoping that “every little bit helps.” Rather, it’s about identifying the few big things, where research shows your actions can substantially move the needle, and breaking them into manageable pieces to tackle.
This guide goes beyond household-level or consumption-based actions, using the 5 Climate Superpowers framework drawn from a Nature Energy study Kim co-authored (Nielsen et al., 2021).
Wherever research exists to quantify the effectiveness of actions (in tonnes of CO₂ equivalents), it is used to inform action prioritization.
Kim received a Communication Grant from the Swedish Research Council Formas (#FR-2022/0001) to share and make actionable the results of scientific research for public benefit.
Want a quick overview of what SHIFT is, why we made it, and how to use it? Check out this webinar with SHIFT creator Kimberly Nicholas and Elizabeth Bagley, Managing Director at Project Drawdown.
Huge thanks to the team who has contributed to this guide:
Cara Harrison: conception, strategy and design, 2021-2022
Tanya Shevel: project assistant 2023-2024
Malika Mammadova: project assistant 2023
Loukas Christodoulou, Ninad Bondre: proposal feedback
Scientific reviewers:
- Prof. Kevin Anderson, University of Manchester
- Dr. Steve Westlake, Cardiff University
- Dr. Seth Wynes, University of Waterloo
Project Drawdown contributors:
- Elizabeth Bagley, Managing Director
- Tina Swanson, Senior Scientist
- Ted Otte, Senior Manager, Drawdown Labs
- Aiyana Bodi, Manager, Employee Engagement
- Skylar Knight, Communications Manager
- Todd Reubold, Director, Marketing & Communications
- Hannah Jurist-Schoen, Creative Lead
I hope you enjoy the guide. I’d love to hear your feedback in the survey at the end! You may also share questions or comments by email to info@drawdown.org.
Happy climate action,
Kim Nicholas, Ph.D.
Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies
Lund, Sweden
P.S. If you want to learn more about Kim’s work, please see www.kimnicholas.com. For scientific publications, see her Google Scholar profile.