Simply put, it means ensuring that the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere is equal to the amount of greenhouse gases removed from it, over a period of time.
A ‘net’ zero of greenhouse gas emission.
'Net-Zero' has become the dominant solution framework to the global climate action movement, today. It acts as a filter to find, develop, prioritize, and implement climate-solutions (both at international and national levels) that can prevent worst-case climate scenario.
( Make note : Net-Zero is not ‘absolute’ zero emission. The clue is in the name - ‘Net’ Zero. So, within this framework, emissions continue to happen! But just that, they are balanced out by the ‘act of removal’. )
The Net-Zero solution framework has become important because of it direct-focus on the very root cause of the climate crisis – the excessive emissions of greenhouse gases.
Greenhouse gases trap heat within the earth’s atmosphere, warms it up and influence its climate.
Simply put – higher the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases, greater is the extent of global warming and consequent climate de-stabilization (or “climate change”).
This emission is a result of our society’s over-dependence on burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), that results in the release of these gases; complimented by excessive deforestation.
As Net-Zero framework puts greenhouse gas emissions at the center of the decision-making process, it offers a better framework aimed at stabilization atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration and measuring meaningful progress in climate-action.
Net Zero plans were triggered by the increasing urgency to address the global climate crisis – especially with climate change related impacts increasingly visible and the 20-year struggle between countries to agree on a common climate action plan since first attempt in 1995 (1st COP, Berlin).
In 2015, a landmark moment took place in climate negotiations, when 197 countries from around finally found common ground to action a planetary-scale exercise aimed at containing the on-going climate change and reverse it to its natural state. This came to be known as the ‘Paris Agreement’.
The ‘Paris Agreement’ has set out the direction for global climate action, for all nations.
Based on scientific and political consensus, ‘Paris Agreement’ aimed at preventing the rise of global temperature well below 2°C and pursue further efforts to limit it to 1.5°C, with respect to pre-industrial temperature as a benchmark. (Article 2.1)The ‘Paris Agreement’ recognized that to do this we needed to achieve a balance between human-induced greenhouse gas emissions added and removed from our atmosphere by the 2nd half of this century (Article 4.1) & laid out the rules of the global effort.
In this sense, the ‘Paris Agreement’ effectively defined the climate action movement for the remainder of this century and broke it down into two parts: Part 1: Achieving Balance between Emission & its Removal, Part 2: Tilting to more Removal than Emission.
In essence, the ‘Paris Agreement’ set the ball rolling on ‘Net-Zero’, without using the term.
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Photograph (top):
Taken during the final day of the Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21), 12th December 2015. Left to Right: Christiana Figueres (Executive Secretary, UNFCCC), Ban Ki-moon (Secretary-General, UN) & Laurent Fabius (President, COP 21)
Simply put, a Net Zero Carbon Plan is an action-plan that seeks to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere to a net-zero level, by removing an equivalent amount of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere.
The goal is to reduce global warming emissions to the point where emissions are no longer a major contributor to on-going climate change.
To align with the climate-goal, the Paris Agreement (instead to prescribing how to achieve net-zero) asked countries to develop their own plans on how it will ‘achieving a balance between human-induced greenhouse gas emissions added and removed from our atmosphere by the 2nd half of this century’. (Article 4., Article 4.19).
This led to the development of several national ‘Long Term Low Carbon Development Strategies’ for submission to the Paris Agreement, while some went further to voluntarily prepare more-comprehensive net-zero plans for their respective countries.
Businesses have also joined on-board the momentum. Since Paris Agreement, there has been a surge of independent voluntary net-zero plans developed by businesses applied to their respective business models and associated emission profiles.
As the definition suggests, Net-Zero plans in evidently includes two principle strategies:
1. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere &
2. To removal of an equal amount from the atmosphereTypical emission reduction strategies include stopping burning of fossil fuel, scaling of alternate energy sources (such as renewable energy sources) and decreasing energy loss in various modern-day global system (aka energy efficiency).
Typical emission removal strategies include large-scale afforestation programs and deployment of carbon capture technologies.
There is no ‘one-best-fit’ approach for all. Countries (and businesses) are free to adopt a suite of strategies that fits them the best and their economic conditions, as long as the end goal is met.
Yes.
In 2021 Govt of India pledged to an achieve Net Zero by 2070. The pledge was made at UNFCCC’s COP26 , held in Glasgow UK.
Following this, in 2022 the Govt. of India updated India’s commitments (aka NDC) to Paris Agreement and submitted its first ‘Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy (LT LEDS)’ at the UNFCCC COP27 , Egypt.
A total of 128 countries (65% of all countries , part of Paris Agreement) have committed to Net-Zero targets, as on June 2022.
This list appears to be growing, with every year.
The United Kingdom was the first country to declare a net zero emissions target, in June 2019. It is also the first country to legally bind the government to the target.
It also includes the top 3 greenhouse gas emitting countries - China, USA, India - which account for nearly 47% of global annual emissions (based on Stocktake’s 2022 report, in-turn based on 2019 GHG inventory).
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Photograph:
Taken during the opening day of Egypt Climate Change Conference (COP27), 6th November 2022. In Picture, Simon Emmanuel Kervin Stiell (Executive Secretary, UNFCCC)
The net-zero action plans presented by the various countries, can differ significantly due to the different levels of economic development and resources available.
They tend to differ with respect to ,
1. Emission Gas Coverage: Some cover all greenhouse gases while others cover only carbon dioxide.
2. Emission Source Coverage: Some do not include emissions from consumption, international aviation, and shipping, while others do.
3.Governance Approach: The extend of detailed planning, reporting mechanism and formal accountability can vary between countries/businesses.
This hinders an apple-to-apple comparison between entities, can give rise to shallow attempt at green-washing and raises the need for careful scrutiny of the Net-Zero Plans for any omission that can deviates its true intent of no-net-emissions by 2nd half of this century.
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