Carbon Footprint Reduction and Climate Change Mitigation: A Review of the Approaches, Technologies, and Implementation Challenges

Abstract

Since the Industrial Revolution, human economic activity and the global development of society in general have been heavily dependent on the exploitation of natural resources. The use of fossil fuels, deforestation, the drainage of wetlands, the transformation of coastal marine ecosystems, unsustainable land use, and many other unbalanced processes of human activity have led to an increase both in the anthropogenic emissions of climate-active gases and in their concentration in the atmosphere. It is believed that over the past ~150 years these phenomena have contributed to an increase in the global average temperature in the near-surface layer of the atmosphere by ~1 °C. Currently, the most pressing tasks facing states and scientific and civil societies are to reduce anthropogenic CO2 emissions and to limit the global air temperature increase. In this regard, there is an urgent need to change existing production systems in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to sequester them. In this review, we consider up-to-date scientific approaches and innovative technologies, which may help in developing roadmaps to reduce the emissions of climate-active gases, control rising temperatures, decarbonize economies, and promote the sustainable development of society in general.