Project summaries

The International Science for Net Zero Plus programme comprises nine, individual but interlinked, projects, nested within three thematic areas and across either global, south east Asia or sub-saharan Africa.

Each project is delivering new science, making data and tools accessible to users, and building and strengthening networks and initiatives around Net Zero Plus. Projects will build on existing relationships with partners in their respective scales, as well as wider networks relevant to helping improved decision-making around Net Zero Plus plans and adaptation to climate change risks.

Integration across scales and themes is an integral part of the programme. The outputs and outcomes from a specific scale or region will inform and be informed by other scales and regions as relevant. Lessons learned from this integration will be transferable to other regions around the globe. 

Theme 1: Quantifying Net Zero

A: Global modelling for Net Zero

• Provide science, tools, and model outputs to quantify land-based climate mitigation strategies 
• Assess the effectiveness of these strategies for carbon sequestration or emissions reduction, and their resilience to future climate/environmental change

B: Informing land management options for Net Zero+ in Southeast Asia

• To inform on land management options to mitigate GHG emissions to achieve Net Zero+ with specific focus on forests, palm oil plantations and other agriculture on peatlands and mineral soils in the Southeast Asia region

C: Assess how tree planting contributes to Net Zero for sub-Saharan Africa

• Evaluate genetic variation in tree species with respect to phenotypic plasticity and environmental variation and their role in determining the outcomes of tree planting under climate change
• Develop tree planting and land management options through stakeholder and policymaker collaborations

Theme 2: Assessing Net Zero+ Trade-Offs

A: Evaluate Net Zero+ trade-offs at the global scale

• Make available to national and regional stakeholders (policy makers, charities, investors etc.) the right tools and information to make decisions about the implementation of Net Zero policies that balance land-based mitigation against other environmental, social, and economic impacts, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals

B: Evaluate Net Zero+ trade-offs for Southeast Asia

• Linking knowledge from Project 1A and the impact of land management scenarios with our atmospheric chemistry transport model to quantify local-to-regional scale air quality
• Building a new regional version of pre-existing atmospheric models with a consistent and verified set of wildfire scenarios, incorporating uncertainty estimates to obtain likely best- and worst-case outcomes for these scenarios

C: Evaluate Net Zero+ trade-offs in sub-Saharan Africa

• Quantify how planting trees to increase carbon uptake and storage affects soils, water, biodiversity, and the ecosystem services that these deliver in tropical systems

Theme 3: Supporting Climate Change Adaptation

A: Improving global hydrometeorological predictability

• Improved hydrological status and outlook methods and hydro-climate services to support climate change adaptation

B: Climate change adaptation for Southeast Asia

• Explore how water and land-management affect floods, drought and water quality, in particular the move to more intensive agriculture, for current and future climate

C: Climate change adaptation for sub-Saharan Africa; African hydrometeorological hazards (AfHaz)

• To enhance resilience to hydro-meteorological hazards through improved prediction of rainfall and surface hydrology
• Develop and evaluate new and existing tools