Increase Urban Vegetation

Submitted by Drawdown Admin on
Sector
Buildings & Electricity
Cluster
Enhance Efficiency
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Peatland
Coming Soon
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Description for Social and Search
Increase Urban Vegetation is a Highly Recommended climate solution.
Solution in Action
Methods and Supporting Data

Methods and Supporting Data

Speed of Action
Caveats
Risks
Consensus
Trade-offs
Action Word
Increase
Solution Title
Urban Vegetation
Classification
Highly Recommended
Lawmakers and Policymakers
Practitioners
Business Leaders
Nonprofit Leaders
Investors
Philanthropists and International Aid Agencies
Thought Leaders
Technologists and Researchers
Communities, Households, and Individuals
Lauren Gifford

Lauren Gifford, Ph.D.

Senior Advisor, Climate Philanthropy and Investing
Elena Essa

Elena Essa

Program Manager, Global Strategic Partnerships

Project Drawdown welcomes three stellar new members to our Board of Directors

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“I am so thrilled and deeply honored to welcome Deepa Shiva, Lois Quam, and Sean Kinghorn to Project Drawdown. Their wisdom and expertise will help us continue to grow our impact as a leading global climate organization,” says Board Chair Stephan Nicoleau. “I know their stewardship, as well as that of the entire board, will ensure Project Drawdown continues to be a north star of science-based truth, ensuring that climate solutions remain at the forefront of our global dialogue. ”

“At Project Drawdown, we are dedicated to turning science into action,” says Project Drawdown Executive Director Jonathan Foley, Ph.D. “Each of these three new members brings decades of experience doing exactly that across Fortune 500 companies, leading investment firms, and all levels of government. We are so grateful to welcome them to Project Drawdown and look forward to all that we will achieve together.”

Meet the Newest Board Members

An image of Deepa Shiva

Deepa Shiva

President, Golden Peacock Ventures and Foundation

Deepa Shiva is an investor committed to accelerating climate solutions and supporting innovations that improve human and planetary wellbeing. She is an LP at Obvious Ventures and Startup Health, backing founders advancing breakthrough work in climate, health, and impact. Through Golden Peacock Ventures, Deepa invests in early-stage health-tech, climate, and community-focused companies, providing hands-on support in product strategy, user insights, and early market development. As President of the Golden Peacock Foundation, Shiva helps direct philanthropic resources toward initiatives focused on climate resilience, civil rights, education, healthcare equity, poverty alleviation, and freedom of the press. She also contributes to the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women Fund, reflecting her commitment to improving women’s health outcomes.

An image of Lois Quam

Lois Quam

President, Quam Advisory Services

Lois Quam is a health care executive dedicated to improving access and affordability. She has held top-level leadership roles in state and federal government, large national health care systems, and global non-profit organizations. Quam chaired the Minnesota Health Care Commission, which led to the enactment of a new health insurance coverage program, MinnesotaCare, that resulted in Minnesota having the lowest number of uninsured persons when enacted. For her roles in business, she was named three times to the list of FORTUNE's most powerful women in business. Previously, she served as the executive director of the Global Health Initiative at the U.S. State Department under appointment from President Barack Obama.

An image of Sean Kinghorn

Sean Kinghorn

Director of Climate Planning, The Walt Disney Company

Sean Kinghorn is the Director of Climate Planning at the Walt Disney Company, with over 25 years of experience in sustainability. He focuses on scaling sustainability solutions that benefit humanity and the natural world. Sean has spent his entire career focusing on protecting and healing our planet while working in corporate sustainability, environmental consulting, and the education sector. He believes in finding common ground and building bridges with people and organizations to educate and inspire them to take action on sustainability. He also loves helping others identify their "why" and their superpowers to find true passion and direction for the hard work that needs to be done to help our planet and humanity.

About Project Drawdown
Project Drawdown is the world’s leading guide to science-based climate solutions. Our mission is to drive meaningful climate action around the world. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Project Drawdown is funded by individual and institutional donations.

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With climate action accelerating around the world, but greenhouse gas emissions continuing to rise, Project Drawdown’s work guiding science-based climate solutions has never been more important. 

At this critical juncture, we are thrilled to announce the addition of three world-class leaders across business, investing, and governance to our board of directors.

Description for Social and Search
Meet the latest additions to Project Drawdown's Board of Directors!
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Deploy Insect Farming for Food and Feed

Submitted by Drawdown Admin on
Sector
Food, Agriculture, Land & Ocean (FALO)
Mode
Cut Emissions
Cluster
Curb Growing Demands
Image
An image of grubs being reared for consumption
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Summary

This solution involves industrially farming insects, such as crickets, mealworms, and black soldier fly larvae, to produce protein for human consumption, livestock feed, or pet food that is less resource- and emissions-intensive than meat or other high-emission foods. Insect farming as a climate solution is technically feasible, but there are limited real-world studies, and the emissions vary widely depending on location, heat and energy source, and processing. Currently, half of farmed insects end up in the pet food market, and only a few percent of total production goes to direct human consumption. In practice, it mostly replaces already low-impact plant ingredients, not high-emission animal products. Moreover, any potential climate benefits from insect farming can typically be achieved far more effectively and safely through simple shifts toward plant-rich diets. Aside from a lack of evidence of consumer acceptance, there are significant risks that invasive species could escape into local ecosystems, especially if farmed at scale. We conclude that farming insects is “Not Recommended” as an effective climate solution.

Description for Social and Search
Insect Farming for Food and Feed is not recommended as a climate solution because it offers minimal opportunities for GHG reductions and has significant down sides.
Overview

What is our assessment?

Based on our analysis, evidence suggests that insect farming offers minimal opportunities for emission reductions and more often replaces lower-emitting foods, while also facing high costs, low consumer acceptance, and several significant risks even at small industrial scales. For these reasons, insect farming is “Not Recommended” as a climate solution.

Plausible Could it work? Yes
Ready Is it ready? Yes
Evidence Are there data to evaluate it? Limited
Effective Does it consistently work? No
Impact Is it big enough to matter? No
Risk Is it risky or harmful? Yes
Cost Is it cheap? No

What is it?

This potential climate solution involves industrially farming insects, such as crickets, mealworms, and black soldier fly larvae, in controlled facilities to produce protein with lower resource use and lower climate impact for human consumption, livestock feed, or pet food. Currently, two billion people worldwide have a practice of eating insects for food, but industrial insect farming is a relatively new effort, even though one trillion insects are estimated to be farmed each year, with roughly 79–84 billion insects alive on farms at any given time globally. Most farmed insects are processed into powders, flours, and oils for snack foods, pet food, or animal feed. This solution does not include industrial insect farming for the production of honey, shellac, silk, or the use of insect waste as fertilizer.

Does it work?

Insects convert feed efficiently, grow quickly, can eat food waste, and require far less land than livestock, especially cattle, creating possible pathways for low-resource protein. However, recent analyses show highly variable and often high life cycle emissions, 4.2–25.8 kg CO₂‑eq per kg of protein for insects as human food, with the upper end of this range approaching the lower bound for beef. The emissions intensity of insect-based livestock feeds varies from 2.8–11 kg CO₂‑eq per kg dry matter and is higher than for soybean meal (1.06–2.26 kg CO₂‑eq per kg dry matter). Insect proteins for pet food are 2–10 times more emissions-intensive than conventional pet foods that often use meat-industry by-products. Industrial farms in colder, fossil-fuel-dependent regions show especially high footprints, with one United Kingdom industrial life cycle assessment (LCA) reporting emissions nearly 10 times those of a medium-sized farm in Thailand.

Why are we excited?

Insect farming has advantages over some widely produced foods, especially beef and pork, most notably that it requires far less land and feed. On average, insects require about 2 kg of feed to produce 1 kg of body mass, which is approximately 3–5 times more efficient than cattle and comparable to chickens. Many edible insects are also high in protein and provide micronutrients like iron, zinc, and B vitamins. There is active research focused on reducing energy needs, breeding native species, and exploring the use of mixed human food waste as feed to better position insects as a potential climate solution.

Why are we concerned?

Overall, insect farming today has limited climate benefits, poor substitution of high-impact foods, significant local ecosystem risks, low consumer uptake, and high costs.

Most LCAs for insect farming are based on small-scale operations rather than industrial scales. Furthermore, common assumptions in insect farming research do not align with current industry practices, including overstated use of food waste as feed and reliance on outdated climate and price projections. While insect farming could plausibly displace some high-impact foods in the future, there is no current pathway for insects to replace pig and cattle products, a prerequisite for meaningful GHG emission reductions. Substituting insects for already low-impact foods such as flour or cereal ingredients, as is currently common, increases emissions. In addition, available insect products have limited sensory or textural similarities to meat compared with plant-based alternatives. Despite more than US$1 billion invested in scaling the sector, consumer acceptance remains low, with only 5% of production going to direct human consumption and 50% to the pet food market.

Industrial insect farming also carries serious risks. Research indicates that escapes of non-native species disrupting local ecosystems are inevitable and will intensify as operations scale, potentially affecting other food production systems. Crowded, warm rearing environments can also act as disease-spreading vectors, even if insect farming’s direct zoonotic risk to humans is likely lower than that of intensive meat production. Over 80% of small insect farms supplying pet food have been found to contain parasites, with roughly a third carrying species capable of infecting humans or animals. Contamination risks persist when using mixed human food waste as insect feed due to potential pathogens and chemical residues, which regulatory frameworks are still working to assess.

Lastly, costs are a major barrier. The most comprehensive economic model to date finds that insects are unlikely to become a viable part of industrial animal feed in the near future. Insects are also not expected to reach price parity with meat before plant-based or even single-cell/fermentation-derived proteins. Claims of future cost competitiveness rely on assumptions of near-total utilization of food waste.

Solution in Action

Bang, A., & Courchamp, F. (2021). Industrial rearing of edible insects could be a major source of new biological invasions. Ecology Letters, 24(3), 393-397. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13646 

Biteau, C., Bry-Chevalier, T., Crummett, D., Ryba, R., & St. Jules, M. (2025a). Bugs in the system: The logic of insect farming research is flawed by unfounded assumptions. npj Sustainable Agriculture, 3(1), 9. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44264-024-00042-0

Biteau, C., Bry‐Chevalier, T., Crummett, D., Loewy, K., Ryba, R., & St. Jules, M. (2025b). Have the environmental benefits of insect farming been overstated? A critical review. Biological Reviews. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.70076

Biteau, C., Bry-Chevalier, T., Crummett, D., Ryba, R., & St. Jules, M. (2024). Is turning food waste into insect feed an uphill climb? A review of persistent challenges. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 49, 492-501. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2024.06.031 

Bosch, G., & Swanson, K. S. (2021). Effect of using insects as feed on animals: pet dogs and cats. Journal of Insects as Food and Feed, 7(5), 795-806. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.3920/JIFF2020.0084

Faes, N. (2022). AgriTech: Insects as feed. Bryan, Garnier & Co. 

Ffoulkes, C., Illman, H., O’Connor, R., Lemon, F., Behrendt, K., Wynn, S., Wright, P., Godber, O., Ramsden, M., Adams, J. & Metcalfe, P. (2021). Development of a roadmap to scale up insect protein production in the UK for use in animal feed. WWF & ADAS. Link to source: https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-06/the_future_of_feed_technical_report.pdf 

Guiné, R. P., Correia, P., Coelho, C., & Costa, C. A. (2021). The role of edible insects to mitigate challenges for sustainability. Open Agriculture, 6(1), 24-36. Link to source: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/opag-2020-0206/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOooE_SOQUs-NtWG_pv1Xx7uwZeR-Aobg04eNkxVymX7Of1FcaT0I 

Halloran, A., Hanboonsong, Y., Roos, N., & Bruun, S. (2017). Life cycle assessment of cricket farming in north-eastern Thailand. Journal of Cleaner Production, 156, 83-94. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.017 

Javourez, U., Tiruta-Barna, L., Pizzol, M., & Hamelin, L. (2025). Environmental mitigation potential of waste-to-nutrition pathways. Nature Sustainability, 8, 1-10. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01521-z 

Kampmeier, G. E., & Irwin, M. E. (2009). Commercialization of insects and their products. In Encyclopedia of insects (pp. 220-227). Academic Press. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-374144-8.00068-0

Lange, K. W., & Nakamura, Y. (2023). Potential contribution of edible insects to sustainable consumption and production. Frontiers in Sustainability, 4, 1112950. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2023.1112950 

Leipertz, M., Hogeveen, H., & Saatkamp, H. W. (2024). Economic supply chain modelling of industrial insect production in the Netherlands. Journal of Insects as Food and Feed, 10(8), 1361-1385. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1163/23524588-00001036 

Malila, Y., Owolabi, I. O., Chotanaphuti, T., Sakdibhornssup, N., Elliott, C. T., Visessanguan, W., Karoonuthaisiri, N., & Petchkongkaew, A. (2024). Current challenges of alternative proteins as future foods. npj Science of Food, 8(1), 53. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41538-024-00291-w 

Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), 987-992. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0216 

Rowe, A. (2020, June 29). Insects raised for food and feed: Global scale, practices, and policy. Effective Altruism Forum. Link to source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ruFmR5oBgqLgTcp2b/insects-raised-for-food-and-feed-global-scale-practices-and

Schiemer, C., Halloran, A. M. S., Jespersen, K., & Kaukua, P. (2018). Marketing Insects: Superfood or Solution-Food? In A. Halloran, R. Flore, P. Vantomme, & N. Roos (Eds.), Edible insects in sustainable food systems (pp. 213-236). Springer. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74011-9_14 

Shine, L. (2020). From foe to food: Entomophagy and the adoption of edible insects (Doctoral dissertation, Concordia University). Link to source: https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/987721/1/Shine_PhD_S2021.pdf 

Suckling, J., Druckman, A., Moore, C. D., & Driscoll, D. (2020). The environmental impact of rearing crickets for live pet food in the UK, and implications of a transition to a hybrid business model combining production for live pet food with production for human consumption. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 25(9), 1693-1709. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01778-w 

van Huis, A. (2013). Edible insects: Future prospects for food and feed security. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Link to source: https://www.fao.org/4/i3253e/i3253e.pdf

van Huis, A. (2022). Edible insects: Challenges and prospects. Entomological Research, 52(4), 161-177. Link to source: https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-5967.12582

Credits

Lead Fellow

  • Nicholas Carter

Internal Reviewer

  • Christina Swanson, Ph.D.
Speed of Action
Caveats
Risks
Consensus
Trade-offs
Action Word
Deploy
Solution Title
Insect Farming for Food and Feed
Classification
Not Recommended
Lawmakers and Policymakers
Practitioners
Business Leaders
Nonprofit Leaders
Investors
Philanthropists and International Aid Agencies
Thought Leaders
Technologists and Researchers
Communities, Households, and Individuals
Updated Date

Project Drawdown launches Climate Science Serving America Fellowship to support scientists working in the public good

Submitted by Drawdown Admin on

At this critical juncture, nonprofits, foundations, and other research-based organizations must shore up funding and other support for the field – especially for the best and brightest scientists and engineers. That’s why Project Drawdown is proud to announce a new Climate Science Serving America Fellowship to support world-class Ph.D.-level scientists and engineers focused on climate science and climate solutions in the public good.

In the first phase of our program, we will offer 2–3 fellowships to early- or mid-career scientists who are based in the United States. If we can secure additional funding, we will offer additional fellowship opportunities later this year.

“It’s never been clearer that those who invest heavily in climate science – and climate solutions, in particular – today will be the global leaders of tomorrow,” Project Drawdown Executive Director Jonathan Foley, Ph.D., says. “I am proud that Project Drawdown can help play a small role in supporting climate science, which in turn pays rich dividends to society – in America and across the world. And I hope that other organizations, especially pioneering philanthropists, will join us in expanding this support.”

Selected fellows will be provided a competitive salary, benefits, and a small annual research stipend. We will be seeking candidates who excel in research, are focused on climate solutions, and work in the broader public interest. Candidates who have shown a deep commitment to scientific integrity, serving the broader public, and science communication are especially welcome.

These fellows will be expected to work outside the “ivory tower” and serve their community, the nation, and the wider world. They will be expected to share their work publicly through books, podcasts, popular articles, op-eds, speaking engagements, public talks, social media, and more. They will also be expected to serve as a public expert. For example, they can be a voice for science in media, communities, and beyond; act as a pro bono advisor to nonprofits, businesses, foundations, and others; advise state and local governments on climate solutions; or provide expert testimony to governments or courtrooms on critical issues related to climate change. 

“The possibilities – and the needs – are endless,” Foley says. “We want to help these fellows do good science. And we want to make sure their science does good.”

To learn more about the fellowship program and apply by the April 17 deadline, please visit here.

About Project Drawdown
Project Drawdown is the world’s leading guide to science-based climate solutions. Our mission is to drive meaningful climate action around the world. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Project Drawdown is funded by individual and institutional donations.

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Science has long been a cornerstone of American progress and leadership. 

Unfortunately, these are uncertain times for science in America. Climate science, in particular, is facing significant challenges to traditional avenues of funding and institutional support as federal priorities shift. 

Description for Social and Search
Fellowship seeks early- to mid-career researchers based in America who are committed to science and public expertise
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