Is it possible for corporations to draw up better net-zero targets? Or should we be looking to scrap the term entirely?
So how can corporations draw up better net-zero targets? Or should we be looking to scrap the term entirely? This week’s Fix the Planet takes a look.Silke Mooldijk at NewClimate Institute and her colleagues first looked at the world’s biggest companies by revenue, before screening for corporations that had made bold climate change pledges.
The biggest was that many corporations aren’t planning to significantly reduce their own emissions, relying too much on carbon offsetting to cancel out a rump of emissions in their operations and supply chains. At least five of the companies, for example, have only committed to emissions reductions of less than 15 per cent. Another issue, which might seem in the weeds, is the choice of the baseline year to measure the cuts from.
Finally, the team looked at how companies planned to do the “net” bit of the targets. Mooldijk says a heavy reliance on carbon offsetting is contentious, with only one firm ruling out using offsets. Two thirds of the companies plan to rely on nature-based offsets, such as tree planting. That is “especially problematic”, says Mooldijk, because the permanence of the carbon storage isn’t guaranteed and because land availability means such nature-based offsets are limited.
One option would be for companies to forego net-zero terminology and be more specific about what they’re planning to do, says Day, such as a 95 per cent emissions reduction goal. If net-zero targets routinely referred to that level of decarbonisation, the term would be fine, he says. “What is not fine is ambiguous net-zero pledges, or net-zero pledges that do not commit to deep decarbonisation.”
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