INTRODUCTION
Climate neutrality is a term that derived its existence since global warming started to affect the earth severely. Climate neutrality refers to achieving net zero emissions by balancing the emission removal from the atmosphere. It includes not only carbon but also all the other greenhouse gases. It can be assumed that climate neutrality is a way to heal the environment sustainably.
The concept behind climate neutrality is that there is a natural absorption capability of the planet to absorb all the greenhouse gases and through climate neutrality we make sure that this natural absorption is in balance with the emissions released in the atmosphere, thus creating a net zero effect on the environment.
As a part of achieving this, UN Climate Change launched Climate Neutral Now back in 2015 to encourage and promote all stakeholders to work towards net zero emissions and climate neutrality. It sees a world where all the emissions are absorbed naturally through ‘sinks’ such as oceans and forests. While the target of ‘climate neutral’ is 2050 this initiative encourages people to take action now.[1]
CLIMATE-NEUTRAL NOW
It is one of the several initiatives launched by UNFCCC to control climate change and achieve climate neutrality. It is an initiative for all the non-party stakeholders like companies, government, individuals, etc.
It promotes voluntary actions by the stakeholders to take the action in present to achieve the goal of climate neutrality. It aligns with the Paris Agreement of 2015, where 196 countries agreed to keep global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius.
While Climate Neutral Now is still active, the secretariat is phasing down the initiative as the expert of UNFCCC suggests that the initiative does not align with the recommendations of net zero. The initiative has stopped accepting the pledges from July 2023 but still, the existing participants have been urged by the secretariat to continue with the initiative as it remains a valuable principle for understanding the principles of climate neutrality.
The initiative is divided into 3 parts:
- To assess the footprint of greenhouse gas emissions
- Involving and implementing ways to reduce emissions
- Compensating by supporting the projects that help in the removal of emissions from the atmosphere.[2]
CLIMATE NEUTRALITY, CARBON NEUTRALITY AND NET ZERO: SAME OR DISTINCT?
Rapid changes in the climate due to increased global warming have affected our planet for a long time. Global warming had been started in the 19th century in the industrial era which harmed our ecosystem and caused various ecological imbalances. To improve these imbalances and to sustain our lifestyles, terms like climate neutral, carbon neutral, net zero etc. were formed. But are these terms all the same? The answer is no. Many people have this misconception that these terms have the same meaning or have the same relation with the environment but in reality, these are different “corporate carbon footprint” reduction pathways.
Carbon neutrality refers to the counterbalancing of CO2 emissions with the carbon offsets by the corporate giants such that there is no necessity to reduce the emissions.
Carbon offsetting is the process of having a ‘carbon price’ for their organization where the company or the organization can purchase some compensation units of carbon from other corporations if they cross a certain limit of carbon production. This may happen when a company has a difficulty in reducing their carbon emissions to net zero. In such a way it provides the organisation to invest in carbon pricing as well as promoting them to reduce their emissions more quickly. However, carbon offsets are not a sustainable solution to tackle the climate crisis.
Net- Zero refers to the absolute reduction in carbon emissions such that the carbon footprints of the corporates would come to zero. This can be done by improving the technology of the industries so that it aligns with the target to limit the global temperature up to 1.5 degrees Celsius and this might take a long time to achieve as it requires a lot of investments.
The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a partnership between CDP, and the United Nations Global Compact, has provided the companies with efficient tools and framework to achieve the global target of net zero.[3]
Climate neutrality refers to the reduction of all greenhouse gases such that there is a balance between the emission’s natural absorption capabilities of the planet. It can be said that the climate neutral term is inclusive of carbon neutral as well as the net zero.
As said by Kuokkanen, “Net zero is the new term for the gold standard for corporate climate action and it’s not about which term is better than the other”
All these terms would surely have a great impact on social, political as well as on economic issues in a positive way.
WHY DOES CLIMATE NEUTRALITY SEEM A UTOPIA?
Climate neutrality seems impossible sometimes as to achieve the absolute reduction of GHGs a lot of mechanisms of modern industry are required to change. But climate neutrality is important to safeguard the future of the next generation which is why there is a lot of focus on sustainable development along with climate neutrality.
The target of Net Zero was initially set for the year 2030 so that all the countries would be free from carbon emissions but this target was extended to the year 2050 at the COP 26 held in Glasgow, Scotland[4]. This was done because the target was still farfetched for the countries and the necessary changes and initiatives to be taken by the countries were still on hold.
The enthusiasm of the countries to achieve this target is all-time high but the lack of initiatives and transparency in the application of eco-friendly schemes makes it seem like a hard task. Moreover, there is a tussle between the developed and developing countries about the contributions of different countries in carbon footprints.
The developing countries argue that the fault is more of the developed countries as they did all the developments in the early 19th and 20th centuries, leaving all the other underdeveloped and developed countries on the verge of suffering from the harm for which they didn’t even contribute. Various developing countries including India have the same viewpoint.
Hence, underdeveloped and developing countries demand financial assistance or incentives from developed countries to provide help with achieving the net zero target. Whereas, some developed countries appear to be hesitant with such demand by the underdeveloped and developing, thus creating a hostile ground for the countries to have a common mutuality among them to tackle the climate crisis on a global scale.
Apart from this, various developing countries have their problems to deal with, for instance, India being the country with the largest population, has to look out for the needs of its people as well as maintain their stance in various diplomatic arrangements making such initiatives as secondary objectives for the country. Underdeveloped countries also face similar issues as they have to increase the standard of living of their people, constantly making such initiatives the second priority and even though if they are provided with financial aid to achieve the climate targets, being underdeveloped they don’t have the right mechanisms to execute such high-cost projects for achieving the net-zero targets.
All these factors combined make it difficult for us to achieve the target of 2050. Despite all the difficulties various countries try to do their best to achieve the desired results as it is our responsibility to safeguard the future of ourselves and the planet. India pledged to achieve its target by 2070 whereas, China extended it to 2060. This gives us hope that climate neutrality is not something that can be usually ignored instead it has now become part of important initiatives taken by all the countries.
CONCLUSION
Climate neutrality is the collective responsibility of all the countries. Apart from UN conventions, every country should try to understand the importance of climate neutrality as it would benefit not only the environment but also other countries as development and sustainability are the two factors that can go hand in hand so that this “Utopia” can be turned into reality.
Author(s) Name: Tejasvi Gour (DES Shri Navalmal Firodia Law College, Pune)
Reference(s):
[1] UNFCCC, ‘Beginer’s Guide to Climate Neutrality’ (26 February, 2021) <A Beginner’s Guide to Climate Neutrality | UNhttps://unfccc.int/news/a-beginner-s-guide-to-climate-neutralityFCCC> accessed on 25 March 2024
[2] United Nations Climate Change, ‘Climate neutral Now’ <Clihttps://unfccc.int/news/a-beginner-s-guide-to-climate-neutralitymate Neutral Now | UNFCCC> accessed on 26 March 2024
[3] Samuel Kingsley, ‘Carbon Neutral and Net Zero- What do they mean?’ ( 23 August 2022) <Carbon neutralhttps://unfccc.int/news/a-beginner-s-guide-to-climate-neutrality and net zero – what do these words mean? | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)> accessed on 27 March 2024
[4] United Nations Climate Change,’ The Glasgow Climate Pact – Key Outcomes from COP26’ (13 December 2021) <The Glasgow Clhttps://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-glasgow-climate-pact-key-outcomes-from-cop26imate Pact – Key Outcomes from COP26 | UNFCCC> accessed on 27 March 2024
