The Net-Zero norm

In a short period of time, the ‘net-zero emissions’ concept has become the norm for international, national and subnational, and corporate efforts to address climate change. The difficulty of reducing all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to zero means that “offsetting” – the use of “carbon credits” gained through funding mitigation outcomes elsewhere to counterbalance own GHG emissions – features in many carbon-neutrality and net-zero pledges. There is emerging consensus that entities should prioritize immediate GHG mitigation measures directly within the scope of their own value chain or organisational boundaries.

Entities setting “science-based” net-zero targets should follow a path for reducing their own emissions that mirrors what science says must occur globally. The use of any externally generated carbon credits should be limited to counterbalance remaining own emissions. There is also broad agreement that any carbon credits, and the crediting systems that are responsible for their certification and issuance, used towards any net-zero pledge need to meet certain quality standards such as additionality, permanence, accurate accounting, transparency, governance etc.