The Arctic Climate Emergency Response (ACER) Initiative

Three of the most imminent global climate tipping points — the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), sea ice loss, and permafrost thaw—are Arctic-based, and are now within reach. Changes to these core components of the climate system are already driving sea-level rise, altering weather patterns, and threatening biodiversity. Current data suggest that if warming trends continue, a self-perpetuating change in state may be “locked in” as soon as 2035, triggering cascading impacts beyond our ability to manage or mitigate through emissions reductions alone. This transformation is more than an environmental crisis; it has profound consequences for global climate stability, as Arctic tipping points approach thresholds that could make changes irreversible.

ACER aims to address these critical threats by investigating targeted interventions to slow or even reverse Arctic warming. ACER will develop a set of Emergency Climate Options (ECOs) to address the three most imminent tipping elements and accelerate the research needed to prove, or disprove, their effectiveness, feasibility, and safety. In the first phase, ACER will focus on mixed-phase cloud thinning (MCT), which involves glaciogenic cloud seeding to decrease the longwave (heat-trapping) effect of Arctic mixed-phase clouds.