BSF Climate Solutions: About

Climate change is without a doubt the most pressing issue of our time. With the clock running out on global CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, humanity struggles to contain global temperature rise at no more than 2 ֯C as compared to preindustrial levels. Present day we experience climate change everywhere and there is a clear need for action. The US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) contends that real world climate solutions will not emerge from a single discipline. The design and successful implementation of true solutions requires transformative concepts that run across disciplines with attributes like discovery, application, engineering, implementation, behavioral change and societal acceptance. With these ingredients at the basis of successful development of novel technologies and approaches, they can drive political will and new policies towards mitigating climate change.

The US-Israel BSF aims to make a positive contribution to the development of climate solutions through cross-disciplinary, collaborative research projects between the two countries. This initiative envisages a bi-annual call (once every other year) for cross-disciplinary proposals that advance the conceptualization, development and/or implementation of climate solutions. The new initiative will focus on how aspects of climate related processes can be offset by novel technologies, regulations, policy etc. Examples of such processes are:

1. Atmosphere (e.g. carbon dioxide capture, methane emissions, hurricane preparedness, climate change, extreme weather etc.)
2. Earth (salt intrusion; rivers, estuaries and marshlands; coastal erosion; droughts; arid ecosystems; alternative energy sources wind, solar); deforestation etc.).
3. Ocean (alternative energy sources (tidal, wave); coral bleaching; biodiversity and biogeography; food web structures; ocean acidification etc.)