"Forget about next zero, we need real zero"


The IPCC declares in 2021 the need to achieve net zero GHG emissions globally by 2050 in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C (IPCC 2021). Since then, the concept of net zero has been widely debated as to its sufficiency to achieve the proposed goal, as companies are allowed to pay for emission cuts elsewhere outside their jurisdiction instead of actively decreasing their own pollution in the net formula (Morton 2022).

In the scholarship, net zero is defined as "for every remaining ton of CO2 emitted due to human activities, exactly one ton of CO2 is actively removed from the atmosphere due to (other) human activities"  (Rogeli 2015). 

Net zero allows UN countries to align on a shared accounting framework in order to progress towards the shared goal of negative emissions. At the same time it offers the private sector a solution to serve the increasingly climate-conscious consumers without an abrupt disruption of the business trajectory and functionality (Reeves 2022).

Nonetheless, net zero presents a series of limitations which have been highly debated both in the diplomatic and scientific circles, the ones more frequently reported are the inconsistency and heterogeneity in its definition as well the consequent postponement of decarbonization based on the offset clause (Reeves 2022).

It is the private sector itself which actively boosts the support for net zero for its business in order to be attractive for investors and shareholders looking for companies with a long-term sustainable strategy. However, as reported by the Time, most of these companies do not declare for example their scope 3 emissions, those produced by their supply chain, thus turning net zero into a concept of PR green washing (Barry 2021).

Finally, with the latest focus on net zero target around the globe, the concept of full decarbonization, which aims at reducing all anthropogenic carbon emissions to zero overall, tends to become secondary and less appealing to the interests of the polluting private sector or the profiting industrialized economies.


References:

IPCC, (2021), Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 

Morton A., (2022), UN experts demand crackdown on greenwashing of net zero pledges, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/08/un-experts-demand-crackdown-on-greenwashing-of-net-zero-pledges-cop27. Accessed on: 26v January 2023

Rogelj, J., M. Schaeffer, M. Meinshausen, R. Knutti, J. Alcamo, K. Riahi and W. Hare, (2015), Zero emission targets as long-term global goals for climate protection, Environmental Research Letters 10(10) 

Martin Reeves, et al, (2022), Net-zero: the risks and benefits for companies pledging to save the climate, World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/net-zero-risks-benefits-climate/. Accessed on: 26v January 2023.

Eloise Barry, (2021), As More Companies Make Net-Zero Pledges, Some Aren’t as Good as They Sound, Time. Available at: https://time.com/6117635/companies-net-zero-greenwash/. Accessed on: 26v January 2023.

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