Glacier albedo increase

Black Carbon (BC), also known as soot, is produced through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomaterials. Apart from its negative health impacts, BC also has significant climate effects because it generally has a lower albedo than its surroundings, which increases the amount of radiation absorbed both when BC is present in the atmosphere and when it is deposited on land (Stjern et al. 2017). Due to the large albedo differences, the effects of BC are especially significant in areas that are normally covered in snow or ice (Hadley and Kirchstetter 2012; Sand et al. 2016; Kang et al. 2020).

One of the main issues with methane removal is that atmospheric methane concentrations are very low. This means that very large volumes of air, and related energy demands, are required, making the use of ventilators like those used for DACCS (see direct air capture) more complicated (Nisbet-Jones et al. 2021).

There is a suggestion to use localized surface technologies to create artificial snow cover on mountain glaciers Oerlemans et al. (2017).

Clouds play an important role in the Earth’s energy system. The effects of clouds are complex and diverse, often having simultaneous cooling and warming effects. Mixed-phase clouds (MPC) are clouds that contain water vapor, ice particles, and supercooled water droplets. MPCs are still poorly understood and 'notoriously difficult to represent in numerical weather prediction and climate models' (Korolev et al. 2017).

Wetlands and peatlands play important roles in global carbon cycles. Wetlands are areas that are seasonally covered by water. Globally mangroves are often the main topic of focus when it comes to wetlands (IPCC AR6 WG3, 2022, 7.4.2.8). In the Arctic and Northern regions, peatlands are important wetland elements, and will be the focus of what follows. Such peatlands are very carbon rich and store carbon in biomass below and above ground and in soil carbon. Although they only make up 3% of the Earth’s surface, peatlands store up to 21% of terrestrial carbon, and damaged peatlands contribute close to 5% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions (Leifeld et al. 2019). Peatland drainage between 1850 and 2015 has globally already released 80 Gt CO2-eq, and this figure may climb to 250 Gt CO2-eq by 2100 (Leifeld et al. 2019).

Compared to the global state of such areas, Arctic and Northern wetlands and peatlands remain relatively intact (UNEP 2021), and only around 2% of boreal peatlands are currently converted into croplands (Leifeld and Menichetti 2018). However, increasing attention is being paid to the importance of restoring destroyed areas, which make up 78% of total global peatlands, and preserving endangered ones, especially in light of the effects of climate change on such ecosystems. The Resilience and Management of Arctic Wetlands notes (CAFF 2021) therefore highlight the need for increased wetlands resilience to protect against future damage.

Several high mountain communities around the world have a long history of building barriers and other constructions that trap or hold meltwater by refreezing it (Nüsser et al. 2019b).