Powers of 10

The Individual

Each person on the planet

Everything begins here. One person, making choices about what to eat, how to move, what to buy, and — crucially — what to demand from the systems they live within. The individual scale is the birthplace of agency: the personal sphere where norms, beliefs, and mindsets form and shift.

The P10 framework identifies about 8 climate solutions where individual agency is most effective: shifting to a plant-rich diet (66 Gt CO₂e reduction potential by 2050), reducing food waste (71 Gt), adopting electric vehicles and electric bikes, and choosing ridesharing. These are actions that require no institutional permission — only personal resolve and access.

But agency at this scale has limits. Without infrastructure, policy, and cultural shifts at larger scales, individual action alone cannot close the emissions gap. The P10 framework makes this honest: the individual matters, but the individual is not the solution — the individual is the seed.

Key Solutions at This Scale

One Earth adds to this picture: at the individual level, adopting a planetarian diet (the EAT-Lancet Commission framework), meal planning to reduce household waste, and composting are pathways that require no policy infrastructure. Gender equity — family planning and educating girls — consistently emerges as one of the most powerful climate solutions, with a combined potential exceeding 119 Gt.

The Family

Couples, households, close friends, micro-businesses

The household is the first collective. It is where consumption decisions aggregate — heating, cooling, food purchasing, mobility — and where norms are transmitted across generations. At this scale, approximately 15 climate solutions become actionable, with a cumulative reduction potential of around 68 Gt CO₂e.

Households are the natural arena for smart thermostats (2.6 Gt reduction), LED lighting (12.9 Gt), insulation (8.3 Gt), heat pumps (5.2 Gt), and rooftop solar (24.6 Gt). These technologies transform the building where a family lives into a node of the energy transition — a micro-grid participant, a demand-response agent, a site of daily decarbonisation.

The family unit is also where women smallholders (2.1 Gt) make decisions about land use, crop selection, and resource management. In the Global South, these decisions ripple outward to entire communities.

Key Solutions at This Scale

One Earth frames this as the first rung of the energy transition pillar: solar heat, electric heat, and built environment efficiency converge at the household. The home is also where circular fibersheds begin — slow fashion, repair, reuse — and where food waste reduction has its most immediate arithmetic.

The Personal Network

Extended family, neighbours, peers at school or work, small businesses, social networks

At the hundred-person scale, something shifts: individual choices become social signals. A neighbour installs solar panels; the street follows. A workplace adopts a plant-based canteen; norms ripple through the building. This is the domain of proxy agency — where individuals cannot directly control outcomes but can influence others who can.

The P10 framework places the sweet spot for the entire Women and Girls sector here, at P2. Family planning and girls' education operate through personal networks — community health workers, school systems, peer influence — with a combined reduction potential exceeding 119 Gt, making this seemingly modest scale one of the most powerful in the entire framework.

About 28 solutions are suitable at this scale, with a cumulative reduction of around 105 Gt CO₂e. Small-to-medium businesses, micro-enterprises, and cooperatives sit here — entities large enough to invest in clean cookstoves (15.8 Gt), micro wind (0.2 Gt), and solar water heating (6.1 Gt), but small enough that decisions are personal, not bureaucratic.

One Earth reinforces this: smallholder farming (family farms under five acres), urban gardening, bioregional sourcing, and sustainable fiber all operate best within personal networks. The social fabric of trust and proximity is the infrastructure.

The Village

Rural towns, large urban neighbourhoods, schools, colleges, farms

At the thousand-person scale, governance emerges. A village has a council, a school board, a water committee. Decisions are still face-to-face, but they carry collective weight. This is the sweet spot for food and transport sectors — where about 38 solutions become feasible and the cumulative reduction potential reaches 97 Gt CO₂e.

The village is where regenerative agriculture takes root. Silvopasture (31.2 Gt), conservation agriculture (17.4 Gt), tree intercropping (17.2 Gt), and managed grazing (16.3 Gt) are all solutions that require coordination among neighbouring landholders — too local for national policy, too collective for a single farmer. The village is also the natural scale for biochar (0.8 Gt), composting (2.3 Gt), and nutrient management (1.8 Gt).

In One Earth's framework, this is where regenerative croplands and sustainable rangelands live — farm afforestation, agroforestry, polyculture, and perennial superfoods. The village school becomes a nexus for youth leadership and education, two of One Earth's seven intersectional themes.

Key Solutions at This Scale

The Nation-State

Megacities, states, nations, bioregions (e.g. Puget Sound)

Since the UNFCCC was signed in 1992, the nation-state has been the default unit of climate governance. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), carbon pricing, fossil fuel subsidy reform — all operate here. Yet among the 193 UN member states, population ranges across four orders of magnitude, from tens of thousands to over a billion. The P10 framework reveals this mismatch: treating all nations as equivalent actors obscures the enormous variation in agency and impact.

At the 10-million-person scale, 35 solutions remain implementable with 152 Gt CO₂e reduction. These are solutions that require national policy frameworks: nuclear power (16.1 Gt), concentrated solar power (10.9 Gt), and wave and tidal energy (9.2 Gt) demand regulatory environments, grid-scale investment, and multi-year permitting processes that only nation-states can provide. Refrigerant management (89.7 Gt) — the single highest-impact solution by CO₂e — requires international agreements implemented through national regulation.

One Earth frames national-scale action through its seven levers of change: policy and governance, nature/climate finance, science and technology, and legal empowerment. National marine protected areas, protected lands (IUCN-classified), and sustainable forestry regulations all require this scale of governance. The paradox of the nation-state is that it is simultaneously the most familiar political unit and one of the least efficient for maximising climate impact per person.

The Sub-Continent

Transnational and sub-continental jurisdictions, entities or areas

At a hundred million people, we enter the domain of transnational governance. The European Union's emissions trading system, ASEAN's energy integration plans, the African Union's Great Green Wall — these are P8 initiatives that transcend national borders while remaining sub-global. About 28 solutions are suitable at this scale, with 129 Gt CO₂e reduction.

The forty megacities with over 10 million inhabitants each have a combined population of over 700 million — more than double the total of the median-sized nations. These urban agglomerations are sub-continental entities in their own right, with emission profiles, infrastructure needs, and governance capacities that rival many countries.

High-speed rail (1.5 Gt) peaks at this scale — continental-scale rail networks require transnational coordination for track gauge standards, cross-border routing, and shared financing. Offshore wind at gigawatt scale similarly benefits from sub-continental marine spatial planning across shared seas.

One Earth's marine corridors — migration routes for seabirds, fish, and marine mammals — are inherently transnational, as are coastal restoration efforts spanning multiple jurisdictions. The sub-continent is where philanthro-activism and nature/climate finance (two of One Earth's levers) operate most effectively, pooling capital across borders.

The Continent

Continental and multinational entities or areas

A billion people. No Drawdown solution is directly tagged to this scale in Bhowmik et al.'s analysis — the highest cohort range in the paper is P8. But the continental scale is where climate action becomes inseparable from geopolitics. The political sphere, as O'Brien and Sygna (2013) describe it, spans P3 through P9 — village to continent — and is where multiple layers of decision-making and governance impact individuals and communities. Applying the P10 framework to this sphere, a cumulative reduction of 808 Gt CO₂e can be achieved through political transformations — significantly more than the 241 Gt achievable through personal-sphere changes alone.

Although the paper does not assign individual solutions here, One Earth identifies several pathways that operate at continental scope. These are not in the original Drawdown dataset but reflect the scale of coordination required:

• Land Corridors — continental wildlife migration pathways connecting fragmented habitats
• Climate Refugia — carbon-dense areas storing 50+ metric tons per hectare, distributed across contiguous biomes
• Intact Wilderness — continuous forests, shrublands, and grasslands spanning continental boundaries
• Species Rewilding — reintroducing keystone species across bioregions (Amazon, Congo Basin, boreal Eurasia)
• Marine Corridors — transoceanic migration routes connecting breeding and feeding grounds
• Continental Reforestation — native tree planting across degraded landscapes at multinational scale
• Sustainable Fiber and Pulp — regeneratively sourced natural fibres requiring continental supply chains

Solutions above from One Earth, not in the original Bhowmik et al. dataset. Listed here as continental-scope pathways toward planetary stewardship.

At this scale, social justice and sustainable livelihoods become inseparable from climate action. Continental trade agreements, labour standards, and resource-sharing frameworks determine who benefits from the transition and who bears its costs. The political sphere does not replace the sweet spot — it enables it.

The Global

Global treaties, agreements, and organisations

Ten billion — the projected global population by mid-century. No Drawdown solution is directly tagged to this scale in the paper. But this is the practical sphere — what O'Brien and Sygna (2013) describe as where personal and political transformations culminate in behavioural and technical responses. P10 does not implement solutions; it sets the rules of the game for all other scales: global treaties, international standards, and the financial architecture that enables or blocks action everywhere else.

Consider refrigerant management — the single highest-impact Drawdown solution at 89.7 Gt CO₂e (tagged P2–P6). Refrigerators exist in every household, but the governance that phases down HFCs operates through the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol — a global instrument. The solution cascades down from P10 governance through every scale. This pattern — local implementation enabled by global coordination — is the signature of P10.

One Earth identifies pathways that require global coordination — not in the original Drawdown dataset, but reflecting the planetary scope of stewardship needed:

• Global Carbon Pricing — international carbon markets and border adjustment mechanisms
• Marine Protected Areas — 30% ocean protection target (Global Biodiversity Framework)
• Sustainable Fisheries — long-term fish stock management across international waters
• Planetarian Diet — the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet adopted at global scale
• Green Hydrogen — renewable electrolysis for industry, transport, and heat at planetary scale
• Electric Transport Standards — global vehicle electrification mandates and charging infrastructure
• Green Textiles — global supply chain transformation for eco-friendly fibre processing
• Circular Economy — global material reuse, recycling, and waste elimination frameworks

Solutions above from One Earth, not in the original Bhowmik et al. dataset. Listed here as global-scope pathways toward planetary stewardship.

One Earth frames the global scale through its seven levers of change: philanthro-activism, nature/climate finance, policy and governance, science and technology, legal empowerment, community action, and education and culture. These levers operate at every scale, but their global orchestration — through institutions like the UNFCCC, the CBD, the World Bank, and international philanthropy — creates the conditions under which the sweet spot can function. The total system: 1,051 Gt CO₂e reduction against a reference scenario of 2,190 Gt, with a cumulative net economic benefit of $38.4 trillion between 2020 and 2050.

All 72 Climate Solutions

The complete Project Drawdown dataset mapped to P10 cohort ranges. Each entry shows the suitable cohort range, CO₂e reduction potential (Gt, cumulative 2020–2050), and net economic benefit where available. Bold = implementable at the sweet spot (P4).

Buildings and Cities — 54.5 Gt, 12 solutions

• LED Lighting — P1–P6 — 12.85 Gt — $2,701B
• District Heating — P4–P6 — 9.38 Gt — $3,086B
• Insulation — P1–P5 — 8.27 Gt
• Heat Pumps — P1–P5 — 5.2 Gt — $1,428B
• Building Automation — P2–P5 — 4.62 Gt — $812B
• Walkable Cities — P3–P6 — 2.92 Gt
• Smart Thermostats — P1–P2 — 2.62 Gt — $714B
• Landfill Methane — P4–P6 — 2.5 Gt — $69B
• Bike Infrastructure — P4–P6 — 2.31 Gt — $2,427B
• Smart Glass — P2–P4 — 2.19 Gt
• Water Distribution — P3–P7 — 0.87 Gt — $766B
• Green Roofs — P1–P5 — 0.77 Gt

Energy — 246.1 Gt, 14 solutions

• Wind Turbines — P5–P7 — 98.7 Gt — $5,902B
• Solar Farms — P4–P7 — 36.9 Gt — $5,104B
• Rooftop Solar — P1–P5 — 24.6 Gt — $3,004B
• Geothermal — P5–P7 — 16.6 Gt — $1,180B
• Nuclear — P6–P8 — 16.09 Gt — $1,713B
• Concentrated Solar — P5–P7 — 10.9 Gt
• Methane Digesters — P1–P7 — 10.3 Gt
• Wave and Tidal — P5–P7 — 9.2 Gt
• Biomass — P3–P7 — 7.5 Gt — $117B
• Solar Water — P1–P4 — 6.08 Gt — $771B
• In-Stream Hydro — P3–P5 — 4.0 Gt — $366B
• Cogeneration — P2–P4 — 3.97 Gt — $288B
• Waste-to-Energy — P5–P7 — 1.1 Gt
• Micro Wind — P1–P4 — 0.2 Gt

Food — 321.9 Gt, 16 solutions

• Reduced Food Waste — P0–P4 — 70.53 Gt
• Plant-Rich Diet — P0–P1 — 66.11 Gt
• Silvopasture — P1–P8 — 31.19 Gt — $658B
• Regenerative Agriculture — P1–P8 — 23.15 Gt — $1,871B
• Tropical Staple Trees — P1–P8 — 20.19 Gt — $507B
• Conservation Agriculture — P1–P8 — 17.35 Gt — $2,082B
• Tree Intercropping — P1–P8 — 17.2 Gt
• Managed Grazing — P1–P8 — 16.34 Gt — $685B
• Clean Cookstoves — P1–P2 — 15.81 Gt — $94B
• Improved Rice Cultivation — P1–P8 — 14.47 Gt
• Farmland Restoration — P1–P8 — 14.08 Gt — $1,270B
• Multistrata Agroforestry — P1–P8 — 9.28 Gt — $683B
• Composting — P3–P6 — 2.28 Gt — $3B
• Nutrient Management — P1–P8 — 1.81 Gt
• Farmland Irrigation — P1–P8 — 1.33 Gt — $214B
• Biochar — P2–P4 — 0.81 Gt

Land Use — 148.7 Gt, 9 solutions

• Tropical Forests — P3–P8 — 61.23 Gt
• Temperate Forests — P3–P8 — 22.61 Gt
• Peatlands — P3–P8 — 21.57 Gt
• Afforestation — P2–P4 — 18.06 Gt — $968B
• Bamboo — P2–P4 — 7.22 Gt — $216B
• Forest Protection — P3–P8 — 6.2 Gt
• Indigenous Peoples' Land Management — P3–P8 — 5.25 Gt
• Perennial Biomass — P1–P4 — 3.33 Gt
• Coastal Wetlands — P3–P8 — 3.19 Gt

Materials — 111.8 Gt, 7 solutions

• Refrigerant Management — P2–P6 — 89.74 Gt
• Alternative Cement — P4–P5 — 6.69 Gt
• Water Saving (Home) — P1–P2 — 4.61 Gt — $1,728B
• Bioplastic — P2–P4 — 4.3 Gt
• Household Recycling — P3–P6 — 2.77 Gt
• Industrial Recycling — P3–P6 — 2.77 Gt
• Recycled Paper — P1–P4 — 0.9 Gt

Transport — 45.8 Gt, 11 solutions

• Electric Vehicles — P0–P1 — 10.8 Gt
• Ships — P3–P4 — 7.87 Gt
• Mass Transit — P4–P6 — 6.57 Gt
• Trucks — P2–P5 — 6.18 Gt — $2,238B
• Airplanes — P3–P5 — 5.05 Gt — $2,525B
• Cars (Hybrids, etc.) — P0–P1 — 4.0 Gt — $2,360B
• Telepresence — P1–P4 — 1.99 Gt — $1,183B
• High-Speed Rail — P5–P8 — 1.52 Gt
• Electric Bikes — P0–P1 — 0.96 Gt — $119B
• Trains — P3–P5 — 0.52 Gt
• Ridesharing — P0–P1 — 0.32 Gt

Women and Girls — 121.3 Gt, 3 solutions

• Family Planning — P0–P4 — 59.6 Gt
• Educating Girls — P0–P4 — 59.6 Gt
• Women Smallholders — P1–P2 — 2.06 Gt

Data: Bhowmik et al. 2020, Table 2. Bold = implementable at the sweet spot (P4, community of ~10,000). CO₂e values are cumulative projected reductions 2020–2050 against the reference emission scenario (2,190 Gt). Net benefit = savings minus implementation cost.