What is net zero on CO 2 emissions?

LONDON, Oct 19 Reuters : More than 190 countries committed to global warming in 2015 to reduce global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels in an attempt to stave off the worst effects of climate change such as drought, flooding and loss of species.

Scientists say bringing global carbon dioxide CO 2 emissions to 'net zero' by 2050 is the way to meet the central goal of the Paris Agreement, although it was left to individual states to work out how to achieve what they signed up to.

Some such as Britain and France have written a net zero 2050 target into law, while many others have established policies aiming at net zero by 2050.

On Tuesday the British government released its Net Zero Strategy, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson said would put the country at the vanguard of green economies, force competitors such as China and Russia to follow it lead.

What is Net Zero, and will it set the world on a path to meet the Paris Goals?

Net zero does not mean zero emissions but neutralizing remaining greenhouse gas emissions with other actions.

While countries and businesses say they will reduce emissions as much as possible, net zero means that some sectors are expected to still be emitting greenhouse gases in 2050.

To offset them, emitters count on projects to reduce emissions elsewhere or to use natural solutions or technology to stop emissions from reaching the atmosphere.

Technical solutions involve planting trees or restoring soil or wetlands, while natural projects include sucking CO 2 when it's emitted or capture and storing the CO2 out of the air - all of which have yet to make a difference to the climate, given their use remains relatively small.

Countless corporate initiatives have sprung up offering offset certificates based on voluntary projects and other nature-based solutions that individuals and individuals can buy.

Critics say such offsets are a fig-leaf for continued fossil fuel consumption. They point to a lack of added standards and hard-to-verify baselines determining the shared climate value of projects underlying offset certificates.

An August report by charity Oxfam said doing land alone to reduce the world's carbon emissions would require new forests of at least five times the size of India or more than all the farming soil on the planet to reach net zero by 2050.

Proponents say offsets are a useful tool to boost investment in protecting nature while the global economy moves to net zero.

Typically carbon capture and storage CCS refers to types of filter on disused smokestacks and projects to store the industrial carbon underground, for example in industrial oil fields.

Most high-emission CCS projects can decarbonise industrial processes. They don't suck any carbon out of the atmosphere and just prevent new carbon from arriving.

While the technology is proven, global CCS capacity is at only 40 million tonnes of CO 2 e.

There is technology that results in negative emissions, for example direct air capture DAC or projects that combine bioenergy with the technology to absorb and store carbon emissions.

A June report of the Coalition for Negative Emissions CNE said the pipline of projects in development could remove only around 150 million tonnes of CO 2 by 2025, making only a tiny dent in global emissions, which hit a record 59.1 billion tonnes in 2020 according to a UN Environment Programme report.

Greenhouse gases are not just composed of CO 2 but also gases such as CH 4 methane and N2 O nitrous oxide which are often expressed in terms of tonnes of CO 2 equivalent or tCO 2 e.

In 2019, atmospheric CO 2 concentrations were higher than in at least 2 million years and concentrations of CH 4 and N2 O were more than in at any time in at least 800,000 years.

Global CO2 equivalent CO 2 emissions hit a record 59.1 billion tonnes in 2020, the report by the UN Environment Programme said in April told.

Annual emissions must be cut to 25 billion tonnes CO2 e by 2030 to limit the increased global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, it said.

The earth's surface temperature was already 1.09 degrees Celsius higher in 2011 2021 than in 1850 1900.

If the world continues on its current trajectory, the rise may be 2 degrees Celsius by 2060 and 2.7 years from the century end, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says.

Except from much criticism of firms' reliance on offsets that have yet to materialise, there is no standardised way to lay out net zero strategies and emissions reporting which makes holding companies to account difficult.

Selling high-emission assets — a move that can make a company's emissions report card look better - makes no difference to the planet's atmosphere if the buyer keeps operating the asset.

Both countries and companies are also under increasing pressure to set detailed intermediate targets on the way to 2050 to avert fears that CEOs and political leaders are just firing the can down the road.

The prodigy Climate Campaigner has criticised net zero goals in wake of climate talks, naming them among world leaders' empty promises after years of non-profit work.