Just How Important is Net Zero?

“Today, governmental net zero pledges cover over two-thirds of the global economy. America and the EU are working towards a target of net zero by 2050. And President Xi of China has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.”

– The Economist

Other Notable Commitments:

BP p.l.c. (NYSE: BP): Net Zero by 2050

United Kingdom: Net Zero by 2050

India: Net Zero by 2070

Diving Deeper with The Economist

and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, Global Energy & Climate Innovation Editor

[Takeaways:]

Net Zero (Parity Condition)

↳ Total CO2 Removals 🟰 Total CO2 Emissions

[Note: Here, CO2 refers to carbon dioxide only, and excludes substantially all other greenhouse gases (methane, nitrous oxide) captured by a more widely encapsulating measure like CO2e (carbon dioxide and equivalents).]

Negative Emissions (Carbon Removal)

“Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) refers to the process of removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Since this is the opposite of emissions, practices or technologies that remove CO2 are often described as achieving ‘negative emissions’. The process is sometimes referred to more broadly as greenhouse gas removal if it involves removing gases other than CO2. There are two main types of CDR: either enhancing existing natural processes that remove carbon from the atmosphere (e.g., by increasing its uptake by trees, soil, or other ‘carbon sinks’) or using chemical processes to, for example, capture CO2 directly from the ambient air and store it elsewhere (e.g., underground). All CDR methods are at different stages of development and some are more conceptual than others, as they have not been tested at scale.” – (Source)

[Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran]

“Some people see ambitious climate targets and say, 'Fantastic, the problem's getting solved.'

Here's the problem. A target is no guarantee we're going to get to the goal.

It's important to have targets. It binds society together. It gives you a direction in which policy is going to go. It gives investors and markets some idea and some degree of certainty as to what investments to make.

However, we often fall short of targets also, we should remember.

[Narrator]

Most government policies focus on cutting emissions rather than how to tackle negative emissions.

[Vijay]

Embracing, enacting, and scaling a negative-emissions plan to get to net zero is a Herculean task.

This is something far bigger than say, the Moonshot, or other initiatives it’s often compared to, because this involves really every economy on Earth, every government, ultimately every citizen.

All of us have to be involved and change the way we live. And it’s not just a technological revolution, we need a revolution in our mindset